PRESIDENT  WILSON'S 
STATE  PAPERS 
AND  ADDRESSES 


WITH  EDITORIAL  NOTES 
A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 
AN  INTRODUCTION  AND 
AN  ANALYTICAL  INDEX 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT  1917 
By  THE  REVIEW  OF  REVIEWS  CO. 

COPYRIGHT  1918 
By  THE  REVIEW  OF  REVIEWS  CO. 


First  Edition,  June,  1918 
Second  Edition,  October,  1918 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


INTRODUCTION 

Under  our  form  of  government,  the  President  occupies 
a  place  that  has  no  exact  parallel  in  the  government  of  any 
other  important  country.  In  the  last  analysis  we  are  gov 
erned  by  public  opinion,  of  which  the  President  is  chief 
exponent.  He  is  the  country's  spokesman,  not  merely  by 
custom  but  by  express  Constitutional  provision  and  man 
date.  He  is  directed  to  inform  Congress  from  time  to  time 
concerning  the  vital  interests  of  the  United  States.  He  is 
also  made  the  spokesman  of  the  country  in  its  dealings  with 
foreign  governments. 

The  President's  Messages  to  Congress  are  not  merely  a 
form  of  communication  between  the  executive  and  the  law- 
making  authority,  but  they  are  intended  to  give  information 
and  guidance  to  the  citizenship.  Thus  we  have  a  surprising 
quantity  of  important  historical  and  governmental  material 
of  an  authoritative  kind  in  the  unbroken  series  of  Presiden 
tial  messages  and  addresses,  beginning  with  the  first  in 
augural  of  George  Washington  and  coming  down  to  the 
latest  official  utterance  of  Woodrow  Wilson. 

All  of  our  Presidents  have  been  fully  responsive  to  the 
duty  of  giving  information  to  Congress  and  the  country 
concerning  the  carrying-on  of  the  government  and  the 
public  concerns  of  the  nation.  Not  one  of  them  in  the 
list  has  come  seriously  short  in  this  regard,  although 
some  of  them  have  been  more  conspicuous  than  others  in 
point  of  literary  or  oratorical  ability. 

Perhaps  no  other  President  has,  relatively  speaking, 
accomplished  as  much  of  his  work  through  the  successful 


Introduction 

use  of  written  and  spoken  appeals  to  Congress,  to  American 
citizens,  and  to  the  public  opinion  of  the  world,  as  has 
Woodrow  Wilson.  His  utterances  have  shaped  events,  not 
only  in  the  current  sense  but  in  the  larger  aspects  of  his 
tory.  His  Messages  to  Congress  have  been  unusual  in  their 
frequency,  vital  in  their  relation  to  policies,  and  notable 
in  the  fact  that  he  has  appeared  in  person  to  present  them. 
All  of  these  Messages  are  published  in  this  little  volume. 

Besides  these  Messages  to  Congress,  however,  he  has 
made  many  important  addresses  of  a  semi-official  nature 
since  assuming  the  Presidency,  while  he  has  been  the  author 
of  a  series  of  diplomatic  notes  and  of  proclamations  relating 
to  international  affairs  that  constitute  state  papers  of  the 
highest  significance.  These  documents  also  are  included 
in  the  present  volume,  together  with  much  material  of 
Presidential  authorship  relating  to  the  conduct  of  the  war 
and  to  the  policies  of  the  Government. 

The  remarkable  literary  quality  of  Mr.  Wilson's  ad 
dresses  is  only  eclipsed  by  their  statesmanlike  character  in 
relation  to  public  affairs  of  great  moment.  His  sentences 
and  paragraphs,  in  their  discussion  of  world  affairs,  have 
helped  to  crystallize  the  vague  longings  of  right-thinking 
men  in  all  nations  into  something  like  definite  policies  for 
permanent  peace  on  the  basis  of  democracy  and  interna 
tional  justice.  This  collection  of  state  papers  and  Presi 
dential  utterances  is  not,  therefore,  of  transitory  interest 
and  importance,  but  of  permanent  value;  and  it  ought  to 
be  in  the  home  and  at  the  hand  of  every  intelligent  citizen. 

ALBERT  SHAW. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Biographical  Sketch  of  Woodrow  Wilson      ...         xi 
First  Inaugural  Address  (March  4,,  1913)      .      .      .          1  * 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  Urging  Tariff  Revi 
sion  (April  8,  1913) 6 

Statement   Regarding  "Lobby"   Influences  on  Tariff 

Legislation  (May  26,  1913) 9 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  Urging  Currency  Legis 
lation  (June  23,  1913) 10 

Address  at  Gettysburg  Reunion  (July  4,  1913)    .      .        14? l 

Special   Message   to   Congress,   on   Mexico    (August 

27,   1913) 18 

Address  at  Rededication  of  Congress  Hall,  Phila 
delphia  (October  25,  1913) 27 

Address     before     Southern     Commercial     Congress, 

Mobile,  Ala.   (October  27,   1918)      ....       32 

First   Annual    Message    to    Congress    (December    2, 

1913)      .     . 37 

Special     Message     to     Congress,     on     Trusts     and 

Monopolies    (January    20,    1914)      ....        47 

Proclamations    Concerning    Shipment   of    Arms    into 

Mexico  (February  3,  1914,  and  October  19,  1915)        65 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  Urging  Repeal  of  Free- 
Tolls  Provision  for  American  Ships  at  Panama 
(March  5,  1914) <v  .  67 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  on  the  Tampico  Inci 
dent  (April  20,  1914) 69 

Instruction  to  Attorney-General  to  Sue  for  Dissolu 
tion  of  New  Haven  Railroad  Mergers  (July 
21,  1914) 63 


CONTENTS—  (Continued} 

PAGE 

Special    Message    to    Congress,    Urging    Additional 

Revenue  (September  4,  1914) 64 

Second    Annual    Message    to    Congress     (December 

8,     1914) 67 

Address  at  Indianapolis,  on  Jackson  Day   (January 

8,     1915) 80 

Immigration  Bill  Veto:  First  (January  28,  1915)      .        94 

Address  before  American  Electric  Railway  Associa 
tion,  Washington  (January  29,  1915)  .  .  .  97 

Address  before  United  States  Chamber  of  Commerce, 

Washington  (February  3,  1915) 103 

Address    at    Associated    Press    Meeting,    New    York 

(April    20,    1915) 108 

Address  at  Naturalization  Ceremonies,  Philadelphia 

(May  10,  1915) 114 

Address     at     Pan-American     Financial     Conference, 

Washington  (May  24,  1915) 119 

Address  to  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution, 

Washington    (October   11,   1915)      ....        122 

Address  at  Manhattan  Club,  New  York,  on  National 

Defense  Program   (November  4,   1915)      .      .        126 

Third   Annual   Message   to   Congress    (December   7, 

1915) 133 

Addresses  on  Preparedness  for  National  Defense, 
New  York  and  Middle  West  (January  27  to 
February  3,  1916) 155 

The  European  War :  Diplomatic  Notes,  etc. 

Note   to    Belligerents,    Suggesting    Observance    of 

Declaration  of  London   (August  6,   1914)      .      215 
rr""Urging   Neutrality   on   American    People    (August 

19,     1914) 217 

Warning  Germany  Against  Submarine  "War  Zone" 

Policy  (February  10,  1915) 220 


CONTENTS—  (Continued) 

PAGE 

Protesting  Against  British  Use  of  American  Flag 

f      (February  10,  1915) 223 

^Identic  Note  to  Great  Britain  and  Germany,  Pro 
posing   Solution   of   Blockade   and   Submarine 
Controversy  (February  20,  1915)    ....      225 
'ointing  Out  Irregularities  in  British  and  French 

Blockade  of  Germany  (March  5,  1915)      .       .      227 

Denouncing  British  Blockade  as   Illegal   (October 

21,    1915) 229 

First    "Lusitania"    Note    to    Germany    (May    13, 

1915) 239 

Second    and    Third    "Lusitania"    Notes    (June    9, 

1915,    and    July    21,    1915) 244 

Note  to  Austria,  on  the  "Ancona"  Sinking  (Decem 
ber  6,  1916) 254 

Note  to  Germany,  on  the  "Sussex"  Affair   (April 

18,    1916) 257 

Special    Message    to    Congress    on    the    "Sussex" 

Affair    (April   19,   1916) 262 

Accepting  German  Agreement  to  Modify  Sub 
marine  War  Against  Merchant  Ships  (May  8, 
1916) .269 

Address  before  League  to  Enforce  Peace,  Washing- 

V      ton   (May  27,   1916) 271 

Address   before   Press    Club,   New   York    (June   30, 

1916) 276 

Address    at    Salesmanship    Congress,    Detroit    (July 

10,  1916) 279 

Address  at  Citizenship  Convention,  Washington  (July 

13,  1916) 290 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  on  Threatened  Railroad 

Strike  (August  29,  1916) 294 

Address  Accepting  Renomination,  Long  Branch  (Sep 
tember  2,   1916) 302 

Address  on  Lincoln,  Hodgenville,  Ky.  (September  4, 

1916) 319 


CONTENTS—  (Continued) 

PAGE 

Address    at    Woman    Suffrage    Convention,    Atlantic 

City,  N.  J.  (September  8,  1916) 323 

Address  before  Grain  Dealers'  Association,  Baltimore 

(September    25,    1916) 327 

Fourth  Annual  Message  to   Congress   (December  5, 

1916) 337 

Note  to  Belligerents,  Suggesting  that  Peace  Terms       J 
Be  Stated  (December  18,  1916) 343 

Address  before  United  States   Senate,  on  Essential 

Terms  of  Peace  in  Europe  (January  22,  1917)      348 

Immigration  Bill  Veto:  Second  (January  29,  1917)     356 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  Announcing  Sever 
ance  of  Diplomatic  Relations  with  Germany 
(February  3,  1917) 358 

Special  Message  to  Congress,  Requesting  Authority 

to  Arm  Merchant  Ships  (February  26,  1917)      .      363 

^Second  Inaugural  Address    (March   5,   1917)      .      .      368 

/Special    Message    to    Congress,    Advising   that    Ger- 
V          many's  Course  Be  Declared  War  Against  United 

States  (April  2,  1917) 372> 

,y  Proclamation  of  State  of  War  and  of  Alien  Enemy 
/         Regulations  (April  6,  1917 383 

^Proclamation  on  Ways  to  Serve  the  Nation  During 

War    (April    16,    1917) 387 

Address  at  Dedication  of  Red  Cross  Building,  Wash 
ington  (May  12,  1917) 392 

^Proclamation  of  Selective  Draft  Act  (May  18,  1917)      395 

/Outline  of  Food  Administration  Program    (May   19, 

1917) 399 

Embargo  Proclamations   (July-August,   1917)      .      .      403 

Message    to    the    Russian    Provisional    Government 

(May  26,  1917) 405 


CONTENTS—  (Continued) 

PAGE 

Address  to  Confederate  Veterans,  Washington  (June 

,    1917) 408 

Day  Address,  Washington  (June  14,  1917)      .      411 
Message    of    Greeting    to    France,    on    Bastile    Day 

(July  14,  1917) 419 

Address  of  Welcome  to  the  Special  Ambassador  from 

Japan,  Viscount  Ishii  (August  23,  1917)      .      .      419 
Message  to  the  Russian  National  Council,  at  Moscow 

(August    27,    1917) 420 

\  Reply  to  Pope  Benedict's  Peace  Proposals   (August 

27,    1917) 421 

Announcement  of  the   Price  to  be   Paid   for  Wheat 

(August    30,    1917)      ........      424 

Message  to  the  National  Army  (September  3,  1917)      426 
Appeal  to   School   Children  to   Cooperate  with   Red 

Cross  (September  15,  1917) 427 

Appointment  of  Commission  to   Adjust   Labor   Dis 
putes  (September  19,  1917) 428 

Statement  Commending  Work  of  Congress   (October 

6,    1917) 429 

Proclamation    Designating    a    "Liberty    Loan"    Day 

(October   12,   1917) 430 

Messages  to  Brazil  (October-November,  1917)     .      .      432 
^Thanksgiving  Proclamation   (November  7,  1917)      .      433 
^Jtddress  before  American  Federation  of  Labor,  Buf 
falo   (November   12,   1917) 434 

sjFifth   Annual    Message   to    Congress    (December    4, 

1917) 443 

\jproclamation   Placing   Railroads    under   Government 

Control   (December  26,   1917) 455 

to  Congress,  on  Government  Administration 
of   Railroads    ((January  4,   1918)     ....      459 


CONTENTS—  (Continued) 

PAGE 

V  Address  to  Congress,  Stating  War  Aims  and  Peace 

Terms  of  United  States   (January  8,  1918)      .     464 
Address  to  Congress,  Analyzing  German  and  Austrian 

Peace  Utterances  (February  11,  1918)    ...     472 

Address    at    Baltimore,    Condemning   German    Peace 

Treaties  (April  6,   1918) 479 

Letter  That  Ended  a  Shipyard  Strike  (February  17, 

1918) 484 

>   Address  Opening  Campaign   for  Second   Red  Cross 

Fund,  New  York  (May  18,  1918)      ....      486 

Message  to  the  Italian  People  (May  23,  1918)      .      .      491 

Address   to   Congress,   on   the    Need   for   Additional 

Revenue    (May    27,    1918) 492 

Address  at  Mount  Vernon,  on  War  Objects  of  Asso 
ciated  Peoples  of  the  World  (July  4,  1918)      .      497 

An  Independence  Day  Message  (July  4,  1918)    .      .     502 

Proclamation  Placing  Telegraph  and  Telephone  Sys 
tems  Under  Government  Control  (July  22,  1918)      503 

Denunciation  of  Lynchings  (July  26,  1918)        .      .      506 
Appeal  to  Persons  Engaged  in  Coal  Mining,  for  In 
creased  Output  (August  9,  1918)      .      .      .      .      508 
Proclamation  of  New   Selective  Draft  Act   (August 

31,  1918) 510 

Labor  Day  Message  (September  2,  1918)      .      .      .      512 
Letter  That  Ended  a  Machinists'  Strike  (September 

13,  1918) 515 

Proclamation  Forbidding  Use  of  Foodstuffs  in  Pro 
duction  of  Malt  Liquors   (September   1G,   1918)      517 

Endorsement  of  Fourth  Liberty 'Loan  (October,  1918)     519 

Address  Opening  Campaign  for  Fourth  Liberty  Loan, 

New  York  (September  27,  1918)      ....      520 

Index 529 

Notable  Phrases   of  Woodrow  Wilson  537 


CAREER    OF   WOODROW   WILSON 

TWENTY-EIGHTH   PRESIDENT   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 
[V ice-President,  two  terms,  Thomas  R.  Marshall] 

The  return  of  the  Democratic  party  to  power  was  made 
certain  by  the  feeling  of  the  country  that  the  Payne-Aldrich 
tariff,  enacted  by  the  Republicans  early  in  Mr.  Taft's  term, 
did  not  properly  meet  the  pledge  that  the  tariff  should  be 
thoroughly  revised  and  substantially  reduced  by  those  re 
sponsible  for  the  protective  policy.  In  1910,  the  Demo 
crats  elected  a  majority  of  the  new  Congress.  In  1912, 
they  carried  the  Presidential  election  as  well  as  the  Con 
gressional.  For  the  first  time,  the  plan  of  popular  pri 
maries  was  used  by  the  parties  in  the  selection  of  can 
didates. 

The  Democratic  primaries  showed  Champ  Clark 
(Speaker  of  the  House)  to  be  a  plurality  favorite,  while 
the  Republican  primaries  showed  a  clear  preference  for 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  But  the  effort  to  secure  a  second  term 
for  Taft  gave  him  control  of  the  Republican  convention  at 
Chicago,  with  the  result  that  the  larger  half  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  supported  Roosevelt  on  a  separate  ticket.  Wood- 
row  Wilson,  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  had  been  a  prom 
inent  Democratic  candidate,  and  through  the  influence  of 
Mr.  Bryan,  Wilson  prevailed  over  Clark  in  the  Democratic 
convention  at  Baltimore.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
logically  a  Democratic  year,  the  split  in  the  Republican 
party  made  Democratic  victory  quite  inevitable. 

Woodrow  Wilson  had  not  been  in  active  politics,  but  he 
had  long  been  a  distinguished  citizen  and  an  eminent  au 
thority  in  the  field  of  American  history,  government,  and 
public  policy.  From  his  youth  he  had  excelled  in  oratory, 
and  his  life  study  had  been  in  the  fields  of  jurisprudence 

xi 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Paper' 

and  politics.  After  graduation  from  Princeton  in  1879, 
he  had  studied  law  at  the  University  of  Virginia  and  had 
for  a  short  time  practiced  law  at  Atlanta,  Ga.  His  birth 
place  was  Staunton,  Va.,  and  his  boyhood  had  been  spent 
in  the  States  farther  south.  In  1883  he  had  entered  upon 
special  studies  at  Johns  Hopkins  University,  where  in  1886 
he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 

He  had  not  only  obtained  recognition  at  that  time  as 
an  accomplished  student  in  history,  economics,  and  the 
science  of  government,  but  he  had  completed  what  has  al 
ways  held  place  as  a  very  notable  book,  entitled  "Con 
gressional  Government,"  which  deals  with  the  American  na 
tional  system  in  contrast  with  the  British.  After  some 
years  of  teaching  elsewhere,  Wilson  returned  to  Princeton 
as  professor,  and  in  due  time  became  president  of  that  in 
stitution,  having  devoted  himself  constantly  to  work  in  the 
field  of  American  history,  comparative  politics,  and  the 
principles  of  constitutional  law  and  government. 

The  headship  of  an  American  educational  institution  is 
analagous,  in  the  character  of  its  executive  authority,  to 
the  governorship  of  a  State  or  the  presidency  of  the  Union. 
In  1910  he  was  made  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey, 
and  at  once  attracted  notice  throughout  the  country  as  a 
probable  President  of  the  United  States.'  He  was  still 
Governor  when  elected  to  the  Presidency. 

Wilson's  first  term  was  notable  for  the  vigor  and  success 
with  which  he  led  his  party  in  the  revision  of  the  tariff, 
the  important  reconstruction  of  the  country's  banking  and 
currency  system,  and  in  various  other  policies  which  were 
favorably  received  regardless  of  party  divisions.  The  prin 
cipal  foreign  situation  with  which  he  had  to  deal  in  the 
early  part  of  his  term  was  caused  by  the  chaotic  condition 
of  Mexico.  Later,  however,  and  before  he  had  been  in  the 
presidential  chair  a  full  year  and  a  half,  the  great  war  in 
Europe  began  and  his  attention  was  absorbed  by  the  prob 
lems  due  to  the  neutral  position  of  the  United  States  as 

xii 


Career  of  Woodrotu   Wilson 

among  the  most  powerful  commercial  nations  of  the  world 
which  were  now  opposing  each  other  in  two  belligerent 
groups. 

President  Wilson's  renomination,  in  the  summer  of  1916, 
was  unanimously  accorded  by  the  Democratic  party.  The 
Republicans  nominated  Charles  E.  Hughes  (formerly  Gov 
ernor  of  the  State  of  New  York),  who  had  for  six  years 
been  an  Associate  Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court.  The  election  was  very  close,  and  turned  finally 
upon  the  count  of  votes  in  the  State  of  California.  Mr. 
Wilson's  reelection  was,  however,  fully  conceded  by  his 
opponents  and  accepted  with  characteristic  good  will  by 
the  entire  country. 

The  most  serious  situation  of  the  latter  part  of  his  first 
term  had  to  do  with  his  diplomatic  controversy  with  Ger 
many  over  the  ruthless  and  illegal  use  of  submarines 
against  the  world's  merchant  shipping  in  the  North  Sea 
and  in  waters  adjacent  to  the  British,  French,  and  Italian 
coasts.  The  principal  slogan  used  by  the  Democrats,  par 
ticularly  in  the  West  and  South,  in  reelecting  Mr.  Wilson 
was  found  in  the  phrase:  "He  kept  us  out  of  war."  But 
just  a  month  after  his  second  inauguration  he  led  the  coun 
try  into  war,  with  the  support  of  a  Democratic  Congress 
and  the  very  general  endorsement,  regardless  of  party,  of 
the  entire  country.  This  apparent  change  in  his  attitude 
was  due  to  the  resumption  by  Germany,  on  a  far  greater 
scale  than  two  years  previous,  of  reprisal  methods  in  the 
form  of  unrestricted  use  of  floating  mines  and  submarine 
torpedoes  in  what  the  Germans  denominated  a  "blockade" 
of  England,  France,  and  Italy — this  policy  being  in  viola 
tion  of  the  rights  of  neutrals. 

Mr.  Wilson's  leadership — his  country  having  supported 
him  in  the  great  decision — was  fully  accepted  at  home  and 
highly  respected  abroad.  His  object,  which  was  to  "make 
•the  world  safe  for  democracy,"  was  acclaimed  by  the  Euro 
pean  Allies  who  were  fighting  Germany;  and  his  official 

xiii 


Presidential  Messages ,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

views  were  felt  as  strengthening  movement  for  popular 
government  everywhere  in  the  world.  He  was  visited  by 
important  commissions  from  the  governments  of  France, 
Great  Britain,  Italy,  Russia,  Japan,  and  several  other 
countries;  and  his  attitude  toward  these  countries,  and 
toward  the  support  of  the  war  against  German  aggression, 
secured  in  every  case  the  confidence  and  admiration  of 
these  official  visitors.  His  leadership  in  creating  a  National 
Army  and  in  obtaining  financial  support  for  his  war  meas 
ures  upon  a  scale  of  unparalleled  magnitude,  had  resulted 
within  six  months  after  war  was  declared  on  April  6,  1917, 
in  measures  that  were  at  once  transforming  a  considerable 
part  of  the  human  energies  and  material  resources  of  the 
country  into  effective  agencies  for  the  carrying-on  of  war. 


Born,  Staunton,  Va.,  Dec.  28,  1856.  Graduated,  Princeton,  18T9. 
Graduated  in  law,  University  of  Virginia,  1881.  Practised  law  at 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  1882-3.  Post-graduate  work  at  Johns  Hopkins,  1883-5. 
Ph.  D.,  1886.  Associate  Professor  of  History  and  Political  Econ 
omy,  Bryn  Mawr  College,  1885-8;  Professor  of  History  and  Po 
litical  Economy,  Wesleyan  University;  1888-90;  Professor  of  Juris 
prudence  and  Political  Economy,  Princeton  University,  1890-95; 
Professor  of  Jurisprudence,  Princeton,  1895-7;  Professor  of  Juris 
prudence  and  Politics,  Princeton,  1897-1910;  President  of  Princeton 
University,  1902-10.  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  January  17,  1911- 
March  1,  1912.  Nominated  for  President  of  the  United  States, 
Democratic  National  Convention,  Baltimore,  1912.  Elected  on  Nov. 
4,  1912,  receiving  435  electoral  votes,  against  88  for  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  Progressive,  and  8  for  William  Howard  Taft,  Repub 
lican.  (Wilson's  popular  vote  was  2,450,000  less  than  that  of  all 
other  candidates  combined.)  Nominated  for  second  term  by  the 
Democratic  National  Convention  at  St.  Louis,  June,  1916,  and 
elected  on  Nov.  7,  1916  receiving  276  electoral  votes  against  255 
for  Charles  E.  Hughes,  Republican,  with  a  popular  plurality  of 
about  400,000.  Author  of:  "Congressional  Government,  A  Study 
in  American  Politics"  (1885) ;  "The  State— Elements  of  Historical 
and  Practical  Politics"  (1889);  "Division  and  Reunion,  1829-1889" 
(1893);  "An  Old  Master,  and  Other  Political  Essays"  (1893); 
"Mere  Literature,  and  Other  Essays"  (1893);  "George  Washing 
ton"  (1896)  ;  "A  History  of  the  American  People"  (1902) ;  "Con 
stitutional  Government  in  the  United  States"  (1908);  "Free  Life" 
(1913);  "The  New  Freedom"  (1913);  "When  a  Man  Comes  to 
Himself"  (1915). 

xiv 


^President  W^ilson  s  State  'Papers 
and  ^Addresses 


WOODROW  WILSON'S  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 

There  has  been  a  change  of  government.  It  began  two 
years  ago,  when  the  House  of  Representatives  became 
Democratic  by  a  decisive  majority.  It  has  now  been  com 
pleted.  The  Senate  about  to  assemble  will  also  be  Demo 
cratic.  The  offices  of  President  and  Vice-President  have 
been  put  into  the  hands  of  Democrats.  What  does  the 
change  mean?  That  is  the  question  that  is  uppermost  in 
our  minds  to-day.  That  is  the  question  I  am  going  to  try 
to  answer,  in  order,  if  I  may,  to  interpret  the  occasion. 

It  means  much  more  than  the  mere  success  of  a  party.) 
The  success  of  a  party  means  little  except  when  the  Nation 
is  using  that  party  for  a  large  and  definite  purpose.  No 
one  can  mistake  the  purpose  for  which  the  Nation  now 
seeks  to  use  the  Democratic  Party.  It  seeks  to  use  it  to 
interpret  a  change  in  its  own  plans  and  point  of  view. 
Some  old  things  with  which  we  had  grown  familiar,  and 
which  had  begun  to  creep  into  the  very  habit  of  our  thought 
and  of  our  lives,  have  altered  their  aspect  as  we  have  lat 
terly  looked  critically  upon  them,  with  fresh,  awakened 
eyes;  have  dropped  their  disguises  and  shown  themselves 
alien  and  sinister.  Some  new  things,  as  we  look  frankly 
upon  them,  willing  to  comprehend  their  real  character,  have 
come  to  assume  the  aspect  of  things  long  believed  in  and 
familiar,  stuff  of  our  own  convictions.  We  have  been  re 
freshed  by  a  new  insight  into  our  own  life. 

We  see  that  in  many  things  that  life  is  very  great.  It[ 
is  incomparably  great  in  its  material  aspects,  in  its  body  of 
wealth,  in  the  diversity  and  sweep  of  its  energy,  in  the 
industries  which  have  been  built  up  by  the  genius  of  in 
dividual  men  and  the  limitless  enterprise  of  groups  of  men. 
It  is  great,  also,  very  great,  in  its  moral  force.  We  have 
built  up,  moreover,  a  great  system  of  government,  which  has 
stood  through  a  long  age  as  in  many  respects  a  model  for 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

those  who  seek  to  set  liberty  upon  foundations  that  will 
endure  against  fortuitous  change,  against  storm  and  acci 
dent. 

But  the  evil  has  come  with  the  good,  and  much  fine  gold 
/has  been  corroded.  With  riches  has  come  inexcusable 
/  waste.  We  have  squandered  a  great  part  of  what  we  might 
have  used,  and  have  not  stopped  to  conserve  the  exceed 
ing  bounty  of  nature,  without  which  our  genius  for  en 
terprise  would  have  been  worthless  and  impotent,  scorn 
ing  to  be  careful,  shamefully  prodigal  as  well  as  ad 
mirably  efficient.  We  have  been  proud  of  our  industrial 
achievements,  but  we  have  not  hitherto  stopped  thought 
fully  enough  to  count  the  human  cost,  the  cost  of  lives 
snuffed  out,  of  energies  overtaxed  and  broken,  the  fearful 
physical  and  spiritual  cost  to  the  men  and  women  and 
children  upon  whom  the  dead  weight  and  burden  of  it 
all  has  fallen  pitilessly  the  years  through.  The  groans  and 
agony  of  it  all  had  not  yet  reached  our  ears,  the  solemn, 
moving  undertone  of  our  life,  coming  up  out  of  the  mines 
and  factories  and  out  of  every  home  where  the  struggle  had 
its  intimate  and  familiar  seat.  With  the  great  Govern 
ment  went  many  deep  secret  things  which  we  too  long 
delayed  to  look  into  and  scrutinize  with  candid,  fearless 
eyes.  The  great  Government  we  loved  has  too  often  been 
made  use  of  for  private  and  selfish  purposes,  and  those 
who  used  it  had  forgotten  the  people. 

At  last  a  vision  has  been  vouchsafed  us  of  our  life  as  a 
whole.  WTe  see  the  bad  with  the  good,  the  debased  and 
decadent  with  the  sound  and  vital.  With  this  vision  we 
approach  new  affairs.  Our  duty  is  to  cleanse,  to  recon 
sider,  to  restore,  to  correct  the  evil  without  impairing  the 
good,  to  purify  and  humanize  every  process  of  our  com 
mon  life  without  weakening  or  sentimentalizing  it.  There 
has  been  something  crude  and  heartless  and  unfeeling  in 
our  haste  to  succeed  and  be  great.  Our  thought  has  been 
"Let  every  man  look  out  for  himself,  let  every  generation 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

look  out  for  itself/'  while  we  reared  giant  machinery  which 
made  it  impossible  that  any  but  those  who  stood  at  the 
levers  of  control  should  have  a  chance  to  look  out  for  them 
selves.  We  had  not  forgotten  our  morals.  We  remem 
bered  well  enough  that  we  had  set  up  a  policy  which  was 
meant  to  serve  the  humblest  as  well  as  the  most  powerful, 
with  an  eye  single  to  the  standards  of  justice  and  fair  play, 
and  remembered  it  with  pride.  But  we  were  very  heedless 
and  in  a  hurry  to  be  great. 

We  have  come  now  to  the  sober  second  thought.  The 
scales  of  heedlessness  have  fallen  from  our  eyes.  We  have 
made  up  our  minds  to  square  every  process  of  our  national; 
life  again  with  the  standard  we  so  proudly  set  up  at  the 
beginning  and  have  always  carried  at  our  hearts.  Our 
work  is  a  work  of  restoration. 

We  have  itemized  with  some  degree  of  particularity  the 
things  that  ought  to  be  altered  and  here  are  some  of  the 
chief  items:  A  tariff  which  cuts  us  off  from  our  proper  part 
in  the  commerce  of  the  world,  violates  the  just  principles 
of  taxation,  and  makes  the  Government  a  facile  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  private  interests;  a  banking  and  currency 
system  based  upon  the  necessity  of  the  Government  to  sell 
its  bonds  fifty  years  ago  and  perfectly  adapted  to  concen 
trating  cash  and  restricting  credits;  an  industrial  system 
which,  take  it  on  all  its  sides,  financial  as  well  as  adminis 
trative,  holds  capital  in  leading  strings,  restricts  the  lib 
erties  and  limits  the  opportunities  of  labor,  and  exploits 
without  renewing  or  conserving  the  natural  resources  of  the 
country;  a  body  of  agricultural  activities  never  yet  given 
the  efficiency  of  great  business  undertakings  or  served  as  it 
should  be  through  the  instrumentality  of  science  taken  di 
rectly  to  the  farm,  or  afforded  the  facilities  of  credit  best 
suited  to  its  practical  needs;  watercourses  undeveloped, 
waste  places  unreclaimed,  forests  untended,  fast  disappear 
ing  without  plan  or  prospect  of  renewal,  unregarded  waste 
heaps  at  every  mine.  We  have  studied  as  perhaps  no  other 

S 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

nation  has  the  most  effective  means  of  production,  but  we 
have  not  studied  cost  or  economy  as  we  should  either  as 
organizers  of  industry,  as  statesmen,  or  as  individuals. 

Nor  have  we  studied  and  perfected  the  means  by  which 
government  may  be  put  at  the  service  of  humanity,  in  safe 
guarding  the  health  of  the  Nation,  the  health  of  its  men 
and  its  women  and  its  children,  as  well  as  their  rights  in 
the  struggle  for  existence.  This  is  no  sentimental  duty. 

•    The  firm  basis  of  government  is  justice,  not  pity.     These 
are  matters  of  justice.     There  can  be  no  equality  or  oppor- 

.  tunity,  the  first  essential  of  justice  in  the  body  politic,  if 
J/  men  and  women  and  children  be  not  shieldedjn  their  lives, 
their  very  vitality,  from  the  consequences  of  great  indus 
trial  and  social  processes  which  they  can  not  alter,  control, 
or  singly  cope  with.  Society  must  see  to  it  that  it  does  not 
itself  crush  or  weaken  or  damage  its  own  constituent  parts. 
/  The  first  duty  of  law  is  to  keep  sound  the  society  it  serves. 
Sanitary  laws,  pure  food  laws,  and  laws  determining  con 
ditions  of  labor  which  individuals  are  powerless  to  deter 
mine  for  themselves  are  intimate  parts  of  the  very  business 
of  justice  and  legal  efficiency/ 

These  are  some  of  the  things  we  ought  to  do,  and  not 
)  leave  the  others  undone,  the  old-fashioned,  never-to-be-ne 
glected,  fundamental  safeguarding  of  property  and  of  in 
dividual  right.  This  is  the  high  enterprise  of  the  new  day: 
To  lift  everything  that  concerns  our  life  as  a  Nation  to  the 
light  that  shines  from  the  hearthfire  of  every  man's  con 
science  and  vision  of  the  right.  It  is  inconceivable  that  we 
should  do  this  as  partisans ;  it  is  inconceivable  we  should 
do  it  in  ignorance  of  the  facts  as  they  are  or  in  blind  haste. 
We  shall  restore,  not  destroy.  We  shall  deal  with  our 
economic  system  as  it  is  and  as  it  may  be  modified,  not  as 
it  might  be  if  we  had  a  clean  sheet  of  paper  to  write  upon; 
and  step  by  step  we  shall  make  it  what  it  should  be,  in  the 
spirit  of  those  who  question  their  own  wisdom  and  seek 
counsel  and  knowledge,  not  shallow  self-satisfaction  or  the 


Woodrow    Wilson 

excitement  of  excursions  whither  they  can  not  tell.  Justice, 
and  only  justice,  shall  always  be  our  motto. 

And  yet  it  will  be  no  cool  process  of  mere  science.  The 
Nation  has  been  deeply  stirred,  stirred  by  a  solemn  passion, 
stirred  by  the  knowledge  of  wrong,  of  ideals  lost,  of  govern 
ment  too  often  debauched  and  made  an  instrument  of  evil. 
The  feelings  with  which  we  face  this  new  age  of  right  and 
opportunity  sweep  across  our  heartstrings  like  some  air  out 
of  God's  own  presence,  where  justice  and  mercy  are  recon 
ciled  and  the  judge  and  the  brother  are  one.  We  know  our 
task  to  be  no  mere  task  of  politics  but  a  task  which  shall 
search  us  through  and  through,  whether  we  be  able  to 
understand  our  time  and  the  need  of  our  people,  whether 
we  be  indeed  their  spokesmen  and  interpreters,  whether 
we  have  the  pure  heart  to  comprehend  and  the  rectified  will 
to  choose  our  high  course  of  action. 

This  is  not  a  day  of  triumph;  it  is  a  day  of  dedication. \ 
Here  muster,  not  the  forces  of  party,  but  the  forces  of  hu 
manity.  Men's  hearts  wait  upon  us;  men's  lives  hang  in 
the  balance;  men's  hopes  call  upon  us  to  say  what  we  will 
do.  Who  shall  live  up  to  the  great  trust?  Who  dares  fail 
to  try?  I  summon  all  honest  men,  all  patriotic,  all  forward- 
looking  men,  to  my  side.  God  helping  me,  I  will  not  fail 
them,  if  they  will  but  counsel  and  sustain  me! 

WASHINGTON,  March  4,  1913. 

WOODROW  WILSON'S  FIRST  SPECIAL  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS 
CALLING  FOR  IMMEDIATE   TARIFF  REVISION 

(Delivered  before  Congress  in  Joint  Session,  April  8,  1913.) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  two  first  Presidents,  George 
Washington  and  John  Adams,  delivered  their  annual  ad 
dresses  "On  the  State  of  the  Union"  in  person.  Thomas 
Jefferson,  the  third  President,  introduced  the  written  form 
of  communication.  His  successors  followed  the  precedent. 
Woodrow  Wilson  returned  to  the  original  custom  and  ap- 

5 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

peared  before  the  Congress  to  deliver  not  only  the  Annual 
Message,  but  also  many  special  Messages. 

Tariff  revision  downward  had  been  one  of  the  uncompro 
mising  issues  on  which  he  and  his  party  had  won  the  cam 
paign.  When  he  delivered  this  Address,  the  new  tariff  bill 
(the  Underwood  Bill),  already  had  been  definitely  formu 
lated  and  approved  by  him.  Its  big  features  were  free 
wool  (the  famous  Schedule  K),  and  the  income  tax  pro 
vision,  passed  under  the  Sixteenth  Amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution.  Such  an  Amendment  had  been  urged  repeatedly 
by  Roosevelt  in  order  to  make  income  tax  legislation  pos 
sible,  after  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  had  declared 
the  first  income  tax  provision  unconstitutional.  The  Under 
wood  Bill  was  signed  by  the  President  in  October, 


Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  President,  gentlemen  of  the  Congress, 
I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  have  this  opportunity  to  address 
the  two  Houses  directly  and  to  verify  for  myself  the  impres 
sion  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  a  person, 
not  a  mere  department  of  the  Government  hailing  Congress 
from  some  isolated  island  of  jealous  power,  sending  mes 
sages,  not  speaking  naturally  and  with  his  own  voice  —  that 
he  is  a  human  being  trying  to  co-operate  with  other  hu 
man  beings  in  a  common  service.  After  this  pleasant  ex 
perience  I  shall  feel  quite  normal  in  all  our  dealings  with 
one  another. 

I  have  called  the  Congress  together  in  extraordinary  ses 
sion  because  a  duty  was  laid  upon  the  party  now  in  power 
at  the  recent  elections  which  it  ought  to  perform  promptly, 
in  order  that  the  burden  carried  by  the  people  under  exist 
ing  law  may  be  lightened  as  soon  as  possible,  and  in  order, 
also,  that  the  business  interests  of  the  country  may  not  be 
kept  too  long  in  suspense  as  to  what  the  fiscal  changes  are 
to  be  to  which  they  will  be  required  to  adjust  themselves. 
It  is  clear  to  the  whole  country  that  the  tariff  duties  must 
be  altered.  They  must  be  changed  to  meet  the  radical  al- 


Woodrow     Wilson 

teration  in  the  conditions  of  our  economic  life  which  the 
country  has  witnessed  within  the  last  generation.  While 
the  whole  face  and  method  of  our  industrial  and  commercial 
life  were  being  changed  beyond  recognition  the  tariff  sched 
ules  have  remained  what  they  were  before  the  change  began, 
or  have  moved  in  the  direction  they  were  given  when  no 
large  circumstance  of  our  industrial  development  was  what 
it  is  to-day.  Our  task  is  to  square  them  with  the  actual  facts. 
The  sooner  that  is  done  the  sooner  we  shall  escape  from 
suffering  from  the  facts  and  the  sooner  our  men  of  business 
will  be  free  to  thrive  by  the  law  of  nature — the  nature  of 
free  business — instead  of  by  the  law  of  legislation  and  arti 
ficial  arrangement. 

We  have  seen  tariff  legislation  wander  very  far  afield  in 
our  day — very  far  indeed  from  the  field  in  which  our  pros 
perity  might  have  had  a  normal  growth  and  stimulation. 
No  one  who  looks  the  facts  squarely  in  the  face  or  knows 
anything  that  lies  beneath  the  surface  of  action  can  fail  to 
perceive  the  principles  upon  which  recent  tariff  legislation 
has  been  based.  We  long  ago  passed  beyond  the  modest 
notion  of  "protecting"  the  industries  of  the  country  and 
moved  boldly  forward  to  the  idea  that  they  were  entitled 
to  the  direct  patronage  of  the  Government.  For  a  long 
time — a  time  so  long  that  the  men  now  active  in  public 
policy  hardly  remember  the  conditions  that  preceded  it — 
we  have  sought  in  our  tariff  schedules  to  give  each  group 
of  manufacturers  or  producers  what  they  themselves  thought 
that  they  needed  in  order  to  maintain  a  practically  exclusive 
market  as  against  the  rest  of  the  world.  Consciously  or  un 
consciously,  we  have  built  up  a  set  of  privileges  and  ex 
emptions  from  competition  behind  which  it  was  easy  by  any, 
even  the  crudest,  forms  of  combination  to  organize  monop 
oly;  until  at  last  nothing  is  normal,  nothing  is  obliged  to 
stand  the  tests  of  efficiency  and  economy,  in  our  world  of 
big  business,  but  everything  thrives  by  concerted  arrange 
ment.  Only  new  principles  of  action  will  save  us  from  a 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

final  hard  crystallization  of  monopoly  and  a  complete  loss 
of  the  influences  that  quicken  enterprise  and  keep  independ 
ent  energy  alive. 

It  is  plain  what  those  principles  must  be.  We  must 
abolish  everything  that  bears  even  the  semblance  of  priv 
ilege  or  of  any  kind  of  artificial  advantage,  and  put  our 
business  men  and  producers  under  the  stimulation  of  a 
constant  necessity  to  be  efficient,  economical,  and  enterpris 
ing,  masters  of  competitive  supremacy,  better  workers  and 
merchants  than  any  in  the  world.  Aside  from  the  duties 
laid  upon  articles  which  we  do  not,  and  probably  can  not, 
produce,  therefore,  and  the  duties  laid  upon  luxuries  and 
merely  for  the  sake  of  the  revenues  they  yield,  the  object 
of  the  taiiu  duties  henceforth  laid  must  be  effective  com 
petition,  the  whetting  of  American  wits  by  contest  with  the 
wits  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

It  would  be  unwise  to  move  toward  this  end  headlong, 
with  reckless  haste,  or  with  strokes  that  cut  at  the  very 
roots  of  what  has  grown  up  amongst  us  by  long  process  and 
at  our  own  invitation.  It  does  not  alter  a  thing  to  upset 
it  and  break  it  and  deprive  it  of  a  chance  to  change.  It 
destroys  it.  We  must  make  changes  in  our  fiscal  laws,  in 
our  fiscal  system,  whose  object  is  development,  a  more  free 
and  wholesome  development,  not  revolution  or  upset  or  con 
fusion.  We  must  build  up  trade,  especially  foreign  trade. 
We  need  the  outlet  and  the  enlarged  field  of  energy  more 
than  we  ever  did  before.  We  must  build  up  industry  as 
well,  and  must  adopt  freedom  in  the  place  of  artificial  stimu 
lation  only  so  far  as  it  will  build,  not  pull  down.  In  deal 
ing  with  the  tariff  the  method  by  which  this  may  be  done 
will  be  a  matter  of  judgment  exercised  item  by  item.  To 
some  not  accustomed  to  the  excitements  and  responsibilities 
of  greater  freedom  our  methods  may  in  some  respects  and 
at  some  points  seem  heroic  but  remedies  may  be  heroic  and 
yet  be  remedies.  It  is  our  business  to  make  sure  that  they 
are  genuine  remedies.  Our  object  is  clear.  If  our  motive 

8 


Woodrow    Wilson 

is  above  just  challenge  and  only  an  occasional  error  of  judg 
ment  is  chargeable  against  us,  we  shall  be  fortunate.  i  f 

We  are  called  upon  to  render  the  country  a  great  service  ^ 
in  more  matters  than  one.  Our  responsibility  should  be 
met  and  our  methods  should  be  thorough,  as  thorough  as 
moderate  and  well  considered,  based  upon  the  facts  as  they 
are,  and  not  worked  out  as  if  we  were  beginners.  We  are 
to  deal  with  the  facts  of  our  own  day,  with  the  facts  of 
no  other  and  to  make  laws  which  square  with  those  facts. 
It  is  best,  indeed  it  is  necessary,  to  begin  with  the  tariff.  I 
will  urge  nothing  upon  you  now  at  the  opening  of  your 
session  which  can  obscure  that  first  object  or  divert  our 
energies  from  that  clearly  defined  duty.  At  a  later  time 
I  may  take  the  liberty  of  calling  your  attention  to  reforms 
which  should  press  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  tariff  changes, 
if  not  accompany  them,  of  which  the  chief  is  the  reform  of 
our  banking  and  currency  laws;  but  just  now  I  refrain. 
For  the  present,  I  put  these  matters  on  one  side  and  think 
only  of  this  one  thing — of  the  changes 'in  our  fiscal  system 
which  may  best  serve  to  open  once  more  the  free  channels 
of  prosperity  to  a  great  people  whom  we  would  serve  to  the 
utmost  and  throughout  both  rank  and  file. 

WILSON  ATTACKS  "LOBBY"  ENGAGED  IN  INFLUENCING  CON 
GRESS  ON  TARIFF  SCHEDULES 

[On  May  26,  1913,  the  President  gave  out  for  publication  the 
following  statement:] 

I  think  that  the  public  ought  to  know  the  extraordinary 
exertions  being  made  by  the  lobby  in  Washington  to  gain 
recognition  for  certain  alterations  of  the  Tariff  bill.  Wash 
ington  has  seldom  seen  so  numerous,  so  industrious  or  so 
insidious  a  lobby.  The  newspapers  are  being  filled  with 
paid  advertisements  calculated  to  mislead  the  judgment  of 
public  men  not  only,  but  also  the  public  opinion  of  the 
country  itself.  There  is  every  evidence  that  money  with- 

9 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

out  limit  is  being  spent  to  sustain  this  lobby  and  to  create 
an  appearance  of  a  pressure  of  opinion  antagonistic  to 
some  of  the  chief  items  of  the  Tariff  bill. 

It  is  of  serious  interest  to  the  country  that  the  people  at 
large  should  have  no  lobby  and  be  voiceless  in  these  mat 
ters,  while  great  bodies  of  astute  men  seek  to  create  an 
artificial  opinion  and  to  overcome  the  interests  of  the  pub 
lic  for  their  private  profit.  It  is  thoroughly  jvorth  the 
while  of  the  people  of  this  country  to  take  knowledge  of 
this  matter.  Only  public  opinion  can  check  and  destroy  it. 

The  Government  in  all  its  branches  ought  to  be  relieved 
from  this  intolerable  burden  and  this  constant  interruption 
to  the  calm  progress  of  debate.  I  know  that  in  this  I  am 
speaking  for  the  members  of  the  two  houses,  who  would 
rejoice  as  much  as  I  would  to  be  released  from  this  un 
bearable  situation. 

[It  was  plainly  understood  that  the  statement  was  aimed  particu 
larly  at  the  "wool  lobby"  and  the  "sugar  lobby."  A  Senate  investi 
gation  followed  and  disclosed  the  names  of  many  men  who  had 
busied  themselves  in  attempting  to  influence  Congress.  The  effect 
of  the  appeal  to  the  public  was  to  clear  away  very  suddenly  all 
secret  machinations  in  regard  to  the  new  tariif  act.] 

WILSON  URGES  CURRENCY  LEGISLATION 

(Address  delivered  before  Congress  in  Joint  Session,  June 
23,   1913.) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  At  the  time  of  this  Address ,  the 
country's  finance  was  under  the  operation  of  the  Aldrich- 
Vreeland  Currency  Law,  passed  in  1908,  which  provided 
for  the  issue  by  the  Treasury  Department  of  emergency 
currency  to  the  banks  whenever  necessary.  The  bill  passed 
in  response  to  Wilson's  Address  was  the  Glass-Owen  Fed 
eral  Reserve  Banking  Law,  which  provided  for  Federal 
Reserve  centers  throughout  the  United  States  under  mixed 
government  and  private  control.'] 

10 


Woodrow    Wilson 

Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  President,  gentlemen  of  the  Congress, 
it  is  under  the  compulsion  of  what  seems  to  me  a  clear  and 
imperative  duty  that  I  have  a  second  time  this  session 
sought  the  privilege  of  addressing  you  in  person.  I  know, 
of  course,  that  the  heated  season  of  the  year  is  upon  us, 
tjiat  work  in  these  Chambers  and  in  the  committee  rooms 
in*  likely  to  become  a  burden  as  the  season  lengthens,  and 
that  every  consideration  of  personal  convenience  and  per 
sonal  comfort,  perhaps,  in  the  cases  of  some  of  us,  con 
siderations  of  personal  health  even,  dictate  an  early  con 
clusion  of  the  deliberations  of  the  session;  but  there  are 
occasions  of  public  duty  when  these  things  which  touch  us 
privately  seem  very  small;  when  the  work  to  be  done  is  so 
pressing  and  so  fraught  with  big  consequence  that  we  know 
that  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  weigh  against  it  any  point  of 
personal  sacrifice.  We  are  now  in  the  presence  of  such  an 
occasion.  It  is  absolutely  imperative  that  we  should  give 
the  business  men  of  this  country  a  banking  and  currency 
system  by  means  of  which  they  can  make  use  of  the  free 
dom  of  enterprise  and  of  individual  initiative  which  we  are 
about  to  bestow  upon  them. 

We  are  about  to  set  them  free;  we  must  not  leave  them 
without  the  tools  of  action  when  they  are  free.  We  are 
about  to  set  them  free  by  removing  the  trammels  of  the 
protective  tariff.  Ever  since  the  Civil  War  they  have 
waited  for  this  emancipation  and  for  the  free  opportunities 
it  will  bring  with  it.  It  has  been  reserved  for  us  to  give  it 
to  them.  Some  fell  in  love,  indeed,  with  the  slothful  secu 
rity  of  their  dependence  upon  the  Government;  some  took 
advantage  of  the  shelter  of  the  nursery  to  set  up  a  mimic 
mastery  of  their  own  within  its  walls.  Now  both  the  tonic 
and  the  discipline  of  liberty  and  maturity  are  to  ensue. 
There  will  be  some  readjustments  of  purpose  and  point  of 
view.  There  will  follow  a  period  of  expansion  and  new 
enterprise,  freshly  conceived.  It  is  for  us  to  determine 
whether  it  shall  be  rapid  and  facile  and  of  easy  accom- 

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Presidential  Messages f  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

plishment.  This  it  can  not  be  unless  the  resourceful  busi 
ness  men  who  are  to  deal  with  the  new  circumstances  are  to 
have  at  hand  and  ready  for  use  the  instrumentalities  and 
conveniences  of  free  enterprise  which  independent  men 
need  when  acting  on  their  own  initiative. 

It  is  not  enough  to  strike  the  shackles  from  business. 
The  duty  of  statesmanship  is  not  negative  merely.  It  is 
constructive  also.  We  must  show  that  we  understand  what 
business  needs  and  that  we  know  how  to  supply  it.  No 
man,  however  casual  and  superficial  his  observation  of  the 
conditions  now  prevailing  in  the  country,  can  fail  to  see 
that  one  of  the  chief  things  business  needs  now  and  will 
need  increasingly  as  it  gains  in  scope  and  vigor  in  the 
years  immediatelly  ahead  of  us  is  the  proper  means  by 
which  readily  to  vitalize  its  credit,  corporate  and  individual, 
and  its  originative  brains.  What  will  it  profit  us  to  be  free 
if  we  are  not  to  have  the  best  and  most  accessible  instru 
mentalities  of  commerce  and  enterprise  ?  What  will  it  profit 
us  to  be  quit  of  one  kind  of  monopoly  if  we  are  to  remain 
in  the  grip  of  another  and  more  effective  kind?  How  are 
we  to  gain  and  keep  the  confidence  of  the  business  commu 
nity  unless  we  show  that  we  know  how  both  to  aid  and  to 
protect  it?  What  shall  we  say  if  we  make  fresh  enterprise 
necessary  and  also  make  it  very  difficult  by  leaving  all  else 
except  the  tariff  just  as  we  found  it?  The  tyrannies  of 
business,  big  and  little,  lie  within  the  field  of  credit.  We 
know  that.  Shall  we  not  act  upon  the  knowledge  ?  Do  we 
not  know  how  to  act  upon  it?  If  a  man  can  not  make  his 
assets  available  at  pleasure,  his  assets  of  capacity  and 
character  and  resource,  what  satisfaction  is  it  to  him  to  see 
opportunity  beckoning  to  him  on  every  hand  when  others 
have  the  keys  of  credit  in  their  pockets  and  treat  them 
as  all  but  their  own  private  possession?  It  is  perfectly 
clear  that  it  is  our  duty  to  supply  the  new  banking  and 
currency  system  the  country  needs,  and  it  will  need  it  imme 
diately  more  than  it  has  ever  needed  it  before. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

The  only  question  is,  When  shall  we  supply  it — now  or 
later,  after  the  demands  shall  have  become  reproaches  that 
we  were  so  dull  and  so  slow?  Shall  we  hasten  to  change 
the  tariff  laws  and  then  be  laggards  about  making  it  pos 
sible  and  easy  for  the  country  to  take  advantage  of  the 
change?  There  can  be  only  one  answer  to  that  question. 
We  must  act  now,  at  whatever  sacrifice  to  ourselves.  It  is 
a  duty  which  the  circumstances  forbid  us  to  postpone.  I 
should  be  recreant  to  my  deepest  convictions  of  public  obli 
gation  did  I  not  press  it  upon  you  with  solemn  and  urgent 
insistence. 

The  principles  upon  which  we  should  act  are  also  clear. 
The  country  has  sought  and  seen  its  path  in  this  matter 
within  the  last  few  years — sees  it  more  clearly  now  than  it 
ever  saw  it  before — much  more  clearly  than  when  the  last 
legislative  proposals  on  the  subject  were  made.  We  must 
have  a  currency,  not  rigid  as  now,  but  readily,  elastically 
responsive  to  sound  credit,  the  expanding  and  contracting 
credits  of  everyday  transactions,  the  normal  ebb  and  flow 
of  personal  and  corporate  dealings.  Our  banking  laws 
must  mobilize  reserves;  must  not  permit  the  concentration 
anywhere  in  a  few  hands  of  the  monetary  resources  of  the 
country  or  their  use  for  speculative  purposes  in  such  vol 
ume  as  to  hinder  or  impede  or  stand  in  the  way  of  other 
more  legitimate,  more  fruitful  uses.  And  the  control  of  the 
system  of  banking  and  of  issue  which  our  new  laws  are 
to  set  up  must  be  public,  not  private,  must  be  vested  in  the 
Government  itself,  so  that  the  banks  may  be  the  instru 
ments,  not  the  masters,  of  business  and  of  individual  enter 
prise  and  initiative.  / 

The  committees  of  the  Congress  to  which  legislation  of 
this  character  is  referred  have  devoted  careful  and  dispas 
sionate  study  to  the  means  of  accomplishing  these  objects. 
They  have  honored  me  by  consulting  me.  They  are  ready 
to  suggest  action.  I  have  come  to  you,  as  the  head  of  the 
Government  and  the  responsible  leader  of  the  party  in 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

power,  to  urge  action  now,  while  there  is  time  to  serve  the 
country  deliberately  and  as  we  should,  in  a  clear  air  of 
common  counsel.  I  appeal  to  you  with  a  deep  conviction 
of  duty.  I  believe  that  you  share  this  conviction.  I  there 
fore  appeal  to  you  with  confidence.  I  am  at  your  service 
without  reserve  to  play  my  part  in  any  way  you  may  call 
upon  me  to  play  it  in  this  great  enterprise  of  exigent  re 
form  which  it  will  dignify  and  distinguish  us  to  perform 
and  discredit  us  to  neglect. 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  AT  GETTYSBURG,  BEFORE  G.  A.  R.  AND 

CONFEDERATE      VETERANS,      UPON      OCCASION      OF 

FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  REUNION,  JULY  4,  1913 

[In  the  President's  audience  on  this  occasion  were  several  thou 
sand  survivors  of  the  Gettysburg  battle,  who  had  gone  back  to 
the  scene  of  the  conflict — with  other  veterans  of  the  armies  of  the 
North  and  the  South — to  commemorate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
"the  high-water  mark  of  the  Confederacy."] 

Friends  and  Fellow-Citizens : 

I  need  not  tell  you  what  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  meant. 
These  gallant  men  in  blue  and  gray  sit  all  about  us  here. 
Many  of  them  met  upon  this  ground  in  grim  and  deadly 
struggle.  /Upon  these  famous  fields  and  hillsides  their 
comrades  died  about  them.  )  In  their  presence  it  were  an 
impertinence  to  discourse  upon  how  the  battle  went,  how 
it  ended,  what  it  signified!  But  fifty  years  have  gone  by 
since  then,  and  I  crave  the  privilege  of  speaking  to  you 
for  a  few  minutes  of  what  those  fifty  years  have  meant. 

What  have  they  meant?  They  have  meant  peace  and 
union  and  vigour,  and  the  maturity  and  might  of  a  great 
nation.  How  wholesome  and  healing  the  peace  has  been! 
We  have  found  one  another  again  as  brothers  and  com 
rades  in  arms,  enemies  no  longer,  generous  friends  rather, 
our  battles  long  past,  the  quarrel  forgotten — except  that 
we  shall  not  forget  the  splendid  valour,  the  manly  devotion 
of  the  men  then  arrayed  against  one  another,  now  grasping 


Woodrow    Wilson 

hands  and  smiling  into  each  other's  eyes.'  How  complete 
the  union  has  become  and  how  dear  to  all  of  us,  how  un 
questioned,  how  benign  and  majestic,  as  State  after  State 
has  been  added  to  this  our  great  family  of  free  men! 
How  handsome  the  vigour,  the  maturity,  the  might  of  the 
great  Nation  we  love  with  undivided  hearts;  how  full  of 
large  and  confident  promise  that  a  life  will  be  wrought 
out  that  will  crown  its  strength  with  gracious  justice  and 
with  a  happy  welfare  that  will  touch  all  alike  with  deep 
contentment !  We  are  debtors  to  those  fifty  crowded  years ; 
they  have  made  us  heirs  to  a  mighty  heritage. 

But  do  we  deem  the  Nation  complete  and  finished  ?  These 
venerable  men  crowding  here  to  this  famous  field  have 
set  us  a  great  example  of  devotion  and  utter  sacrifice. 
They  were  willing  to  die  that  the  people  might  live.  But 
their  task  is  done.  Their  day  is  turned  into  evening. 
They  look  to  us  to  perfect  what  they  established.  Their 
work  is  handed  on  to  us,  to  be  done  in  another  way  but 
not  in  another  spirit.  Our  day  is  not  over;  it  is  upon  us 
in  full  tide. 

Have  affairs  paused?  Does  the  Nation  stand  still?  Is 
what  the  fifty  years  have  wrought  since  those  days  of  battle 
finished,  rounded  out,  and  completed?  Here  is  a  great 
people,  great  with  every  force  that  has  ever  beaten  in  the 
lifeblood  of  mankind.  And  it  is  secure.  There  is  no  one 
within  its  borders,  there  is  no  power  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  to  make  it  afraid.  But  has  it  yet  squared 
itself  with  its  own  great  standards  set  up  at  its  birth,  when 
it  made  that  first  noble,  naive  appeal  to  the  moral  judgment 
of  mankind  to  take  notice  that  a  government  had  now 
at  last  been  established  which  was  to  serve  men,  not  mas 
ters?  It  is  secure  in  everything  except  the  satisfaction 
that  its  life  is  right,  adjusted  to  the  uttermost  to  the  stand 
ards  of  righteousness  and  humanity.  The  days  of  sacrifice 
and  cleansing  are  not  closed.  We  have  harder  things  to 
do  than  were  done  in  the  heroic  days  of  war,  because  harder 

15 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to  see  clearly,  requiring  more  vision,  more  calm  balance  of 
judgment,  a  more  candid  searching  of  the  very  springs  of 
right. 

Look  around  you  upon  the  field  of  Gettysburg!  Picture 
the  array,  the  fierce  heats  and  agony  of  battle,  column 
hurled  against  column,  battery  bellowing  to  battery!  Val 
our  ?  Yes !  Greater  no  man  shall  see  in  war ;  and  self- 
sacrifice,  and  loss  to  the  uttermost;  the  high  recklessness 
of  exalted  devotion  which  does  not  count  the  cost.  We 
are  made  by  these  tragic,  epic  things  to  know  what  it  costs 
to  make  a  nation — the  blood  and  sacrifice  of  multitudes  of 
unknown  men  lifted  to  a  great  stature  in  the  view  of  all 
generations  by  knowing  no  limit  to  their  manly  willingness 
to  serve.  In  armies  thus  marshaled  from  the  ranks  of  free 
men  you  will  see,  as  it  were,  a  nation  embattled,  the  leaders 
and  the  led,  and  may  know,  if  you  will,  how  little  except 
in  form  its  action  differs  in  days  of  peace  from  its  action 
in  days  of  war. 

May  we  break  camp  now  and  be  at  ease  ?  Are  the  forces 
that  fight  for  the  Nation  dispersed,  disbanded,  gone  to  their 
homes  forgetful  of  the  common  cause?  Are  our  forces  dis 
organized,  without  constituted  leaders  and  the  might  of 
men  consciously  united  because  we  contend,  not  with  armies, 
but  with  principalities  and  powers  and  wickedness  in  high 
places.  Are  we  content  to  lie  still?  Does  our  union  mean 
sympathy,  our  peace  contentment,  our  vigour  right  action, 
our  maturity  self-comprehension  and  a  clear  confidence  in 
choosing  what  we  shall  do?  War  fitted  us  for  action,  and 
action  never  ceases. 

I  have  been  chosen  the  leader  of  the  Nation.  I  cannot 
justify  the  choice  by  any  qualities  of  my  own,  but  so  it 
has  come  about,  and  here  I  stand.  Whom  do  I  command? 
The  ghostly  hosts  who  fought  upon  these  battle  fields  long 
ago  and  are  gone  ?  i.  These  gallant  gentlemen  stricken  in 
years  whose  fighting  days  are  over,  their  glory  won  ?  What 
are  the  orders  for  them,  and  who  rallies  them?)  I  have  in 

16 


Woodrow    Wilson 

my  mind  another  host,  whom  these  set  free  of  civil  strife 
in  order  that  they  might  work  out  in  days  of  peace  and 
settled  order  the  life  of  a  great  Nation.  That  host  is  the 
people  themselves,  the  great  and  the  small,  without  class 
or  difference  of  kind  or  race  or  origin ;  fand  undivided  in 
interest,  if  we  have  but  the  vision  to  guide  and  direct  them 
and  order  their  lives  aright  in  what  we  do.)  [Our  constitu 
tions  are  their  articles  of  enlistment.  The  orders  of  the 
day  are  the  laws  upon  our  statute  books]  What  we  strive 
for  is  their  freedom,  their  right  to  lift  themselves  from 
day  to  day  and  behold  the  things  they  have  hoped  for,  and 
so  make  way  for  still  better  days  for  those  whom  they  love 
who  are  to  come  after  them.  The  recruits  are  the  little 
children  crowding  in.  The  quartermaster's  stores  are  in 
the  mines  and  forests  and  fields,  in  the  shops  and  factories. 
Every  day  something  must  be  done  to  push  the  campaign 
forward;  and  it  must  be  done  by  plan  and  with  an  eye 
to  some  great  destiny. 

/  How  shall  we  hold  such  thoughts  in  our  hearts  and  not 
DC  moved?!  I  would  not  have  you  live  even  to-day  wholly 
in  the  past,  but  would  wish  to  stand  with  you  in  the  light 
that  streams  upon  us  now  out  of  that  great  day  gone  by. 
Here  is  the  nation  God  has  builded  by  our  hands.  What 
shall  we  do  with  it?  Who  stands  ready  to  act  again  and 
always  in  the  spirit  of  this  day  of  reunion  and  hope  and 
patriotic  fervor?  The  day  of  our  country's  life  has  but 
broadened  into  morning.  Do  not  put  uniforms  by.  Put 
the  harness  of  the  present  on.  Lift  your  eyes  to  the  great 
tracts  of  life  yet  to  be  conquered  in  the  interest  of  righteous 
peace,  of  that  prosperity  which  lies  in  a  people's  hearts  and 
outlasts  all  wars  and  errors  of  men.  Come,  let  us  be  com 
rades  and  soldiers  yet  to  serve  our  fellow  men  in  quiet 
counsel,  where  the  blare  of  trumpets  is  neither  heard  nor 
heeded  and  where  the  things  are  done  which  make  blessed 
the  nations  of  the  world  in  peace  and  righteousness  and 
love. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

WILSON'S  SPECIAL  MESSAGE  ON  MEXICO 

(Delivered  before   Congress   in   Joint  Session, 
August  27,   1913) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  General  Huerta  had  been  pro 
claimed  Provisional  President  on  February  18,  1913,  by  the 
rebelling  troops  under  his  control.  On  February  19  a  ha 
stily  assembled  Congress  elected  him  Provisional  President. 
On  February  22')  1913,  Francisco  Madero  and  Pino  Suarez, 
deposed  President  and  V ice-President,  were  shot  dead 
"while  attempting  to  escape."  President  Wilson  had  re 
fused  to  recognize  Huerta;  and  for  a  year  following  this 
message  he  remained  steadfast.  Huerta  then  resigned.] 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

It  is  clearly  my  duty  to  lay  before  you,  very  fully  and 
without  reservation,  the  facts  concerning  our  present  rela 
tions  with  the  Republic  of  Mexico.  The  deplorable  posture 
of  affairs  in  Mexico  I  need  not  describe,  but  I  deem  it  my 
duty  to  speak  very  frankly  of  what  this  Government  has 
done  and  should  seek  to  do  in  fulfillment  of  its  obligation 
to  Mexico  herself,  as  a  friend  and  neighbor,  and  to  Ameri 
can  citizens  whose  lives  and  vital  interests  are  daily  affected 
by  the  distressing  conditions  which  now  obtain  beyond  our 
southern  border. 

Those  conditions  touch  us  very  nearly.  Not  merely  be 
cause  they  lie  at  our  very  doors.  That,  of  course,  makes  us 
more  vividly  and  more  constantly  conscious  of  them,  and 
every  instinct  of  neighborly  interest  and  sympathy  is 
aroused  and  quickened  by  them;  but  that  is  only  one  ele 
ment  in  the  determination  of  our  duty.  We  are  glad  to  call 
ourselves  the  friend  of  Mexico,  and  we  shall,  I  hope,  have 
many  an  occasion,  in  happier  times  as  well  as  in  these  days 
of  trouble  and  confusion,  to  show  that  our  friendship  is 
genuine  and  disinterested,  capable  of  sacrifice  and  every 
generous  manifestation.  The  peace,  prosperity,  and  con- 

18 


Woodrow    Wilson 

tentment  of  Mexico  mean  more,  much  more,  to  us  than 
merely  an  enlarged  field  for  our  commerce  and  enterprise. 
They  mean  an  enlargement  of  the  field  of  self-government 
and  the  realization  of  the  hopes  and  rights  of  a  nation  with 
whose  best  aspirations,  so  long  suppressed  and  disap 
pointed,  we  deeply  sympathize.  We  shall  yet  prove  to  the 
Mexican  people  that  we  know  how  to  serve  them  without 
first  thinking  how  we  shall  serve  ourselves. 

But  we  are  not  the  only  friends  of  Mexico.  The  whole 
world  desires  her  peace  and  progress ;  and  the  whole  world 
is  interested  as  never  before.  Mexico  lies  at  last  where  all 
the  world  looks  on.  Central  America  is  about  to  be  touched 
by  the  great  routes  of  the  world's  trade  and  intercourse 
running  free  from  ocean  to  ocean  at  the  Isthmus.  The 
future  has  much  in  store  for  Mexico,  as  for  all  the  States 
of  Central  America ;  but  the  best  gifts  can  come  to  her  only 
if  she  be  ready  and  free  to  receive  them  and  to  enjoy  them 
honorably.  America  in  particular — America  north  and 
south  and  upon  both  continents — waits  upon  the  develop 
ment  of  Mexico;  and  that  development  can  be  sound  and 
lasting  only  if  it  be  the  product  of  a  genuine  freedom,  a 
just  and  ordered  government  founded  upon  law.  Only  so 
can  it  be  peaceful  or  fruitful  of  the  benefits  of  peace. 
Mexico  has  a  great  and  enviable  future  before  her,  if  only 
she  choose  and  attain  the  paths  of  honest  constitutional 
government. 

The  present  circumstances  of  the  Republic,  I  deeply  re 
gret  to  say,  do  not  seem  to  promise  even  the  foundations 
of  such  a  peace.  We  have  waited  many  months,  months  full 
of  peril  and  anxiety,  for  the  conditions  there  to  improve, 
and  they  have  not  improved.  They  have  grown  worse, 
rather.  The  territory  in  some  sort  controlled  by  the  pro 
visional  authorities  at  Mexico  City  has  grown  smaller,  not 
larger.  The  prospect  of  the  pacification  of  the  country, 
even  by  arms,  has  seemed  to  grow  more  and  more  remote; 
and  its  pacification  by  the  authorities  at  the  capital  is  evi- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

dently  impossible  by  any  other  means  than  force.  Diffi 
culties  more  and  more  entangle  those  who  claim  to  consti 
tute  the  legitimate  government  of  the  Republic.  They 
have  not  made  good  their  claim  in  fact.  Their  successes  in 
the  field  have  proved  only  temporary.  War  and  disorder, 
devastation  and  confusion,  seem  to  threaten  to  become  the 
settled  fortune  of  the  distracted  country.  As  friends  we 
could  wait  no  longer  for  a  solution  which  every  week 
Seemed  further  away.  It  was  our  duty  at  least  to  volunteer 
our  good  offices — to  offer  to  assist,  if  we  might,  in  effect 
ing  some  arrangement  which  would  bring  relief  and  peace 
and  set  up  a  universally  acknowledged  political  authority 
there. 

Accordingly,  I  took  the  liberty  of  sending  £he  Hon.  John 
Lind,  formerly  governor  of  Minnesota,  as  my  personal 
spokesman  and  representative,  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  with 
the  following  instructions: 

Press  very  earnestly  upon  the  attention  of  those  who  are  now 
exercising  authority  or  wielding  influence  in  Mexico  the  following 
considerations  and  advice: 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  does  not  feel  at  liberty 
any  longer  to  stand  inactively  by  while  it  becomes  daily  more  and 
more  evident  that  no  real  progress  is  being  made  towards  the 
establishment  of  a  government  at  the  City  of  Mexico  which  the 
country  will  obey  and  respect. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  dr>es  not  stand  in  the  same 
case  with  the  other  great  Governments  of  the  world  in  respect  of 
what  is  happening  or  what  is  likely  to  happen  in  Mexico.  We 
offer  our  good  offices,  not  only  because  of  our  genuine  desire  to 
play  the  part  of  a  friend,  but  also  because  we  are  expected  by 
the  powers  of  the  world  to  act  as  Mexico's  nearest  friend. 

We  wish  to  act  in  these  circumstances  in  the  spirit  of  the  most 
earnest  and  disinterested  friendship.  It  is  our  purpose  in  what 
ever  we  do  or  propose  in  this  perplexing  and  distressing  situation 
not  only  to  pay  the  most  scrupulous  regard  to  the  sovereignty 
and  independence  of  Mexico — that  we  take  as  a  matter  of  course 
to  which  we  are  bound  by  every  obligation  of  right  and  honor — 
but  also  to  give  every  possible  evidence  that  we  act  in  the  interest 
of  Mexico  alone,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  any  person  or  body 
of  persons  who  may  have  personal  or  property  claims  in  Mexico 
which  they  may  feel  that  they  have  the  right  to  press.  We  are 
seeking  to  counsel  Mexico  for  her  own  good,  and  in  the  interest 

20 


Woodrow    Wilson 

of  her  own  peace,  and  not  for  any  other  purpose  whatever.  The 
Government  of  the  United  States  would  deem  itself  discredited  if 
it  had  any  selfish  or  ulterior  purpose  in  transactions  where  the 
peace,  happiness,  and  prosperity  of  a  whole  people  are  involved. 
It  is  acting  as  its  friendship  for  Mexico,  not  as  any  selfish  interest, 
dictates. 

The  present  situation  in  Mexico  is  incompatible  with  the  fulfill 
ment  of  international  obligations  on  the  part  of  Mexico,  with  the 
civilized  development  of  Mexico  herself,  and  with  the  maintenance 
of  tolerable  political  and  economic  conditions  in  Central  America. 
It  is  upon  no  common  occasion,  therefore,  that  the  United  States 
offers  her  counsel  and  assistance.  All  America  cries  out  for  a 
settlement. 

A  satisfactory  settlement  seems  to  us  to  be  conditioned  on — 

(a)  An  immediate  cessation  of  fighting  throughout  Mexico,  a 
definite  armistice  solemnly  entered  into  and  scrupulously  observed; 

(6)  Security  given  for  an  early  and  free  election  in  which  all 
will  agree  to  take  part; 

(c)  The  consent  of  Gen.  Huerta  to  bind  himself  not  to  be  a 
candidate  for  election  as  President  of  the  Republic  at  this  election; 
and 

(d)  The  agreement  of  all  parties  to  abide  by  the  results  of  the 
election  and  co-operate  in  the  most  loyal  way  in  organizing  and 
supporting  the  new  administration. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  will  be  glad  to  play  any 
part  in  this  settlement  or  in  its  carrying  out  which  it  can  play 
honorably  and  consistently  with  international  right.  It  pledges 
itself  to  recognize  and  in  every  way  possible  and  proper  to  assist 
the  administration  chosen  and  set  up  in  Mexico  in  the  way  and 
on  the  conditions  suggested. 

Taking  all  the  existing  conditions  into  consideration,  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  can  conceive  of  no  reasons  sufficient  to 
justify  those  who  are  now  attempting  to  shape  the  policy  or  exer 
cise  the  authority  of  Mexico  in  declining  the  offices  of  friendship 
thus  offered.  Can  Mexico  give  the  civilized  world  a  satisfactory 
reason  for  rejecting  our  good  offices?  If  Mexico  can  suggest  any 
better  way  in  which  to  show  our  friendship,  serve  the  people  or 
Mexico,  and  meet  our  international  obligations,  we  are  more  than 
willing  to  consider  the  suggestion. 

Mr.  Lind  executed  his  delicate  and  difficult  mission  with 
singular  tact,  firmness,  and  good  judgment,  and  made  clear 
to  the  authorities  at  the  City  of  Mexico  not  only  the  pur 
pose  of  his  visit  but  also  the  spirit  in  which  it  had  been 
undertaken.  But  the  proposals  he  submitted  were  rejected, 
in  a  note  the  full  text  of  which  I  take  the  liberty  of  laying 
before  you. 

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[The  Mexican  note  was  addressed  to  Mr.  Lind  and  signed  by 
Senor  F.  Gamboa,  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs.  Its  salient  parts 
were: 

The  imputation  that  no  progress  has  been  made  toward  estab 
lishing  a  Government  that  may  enjoy  the  obedience  of  the  Mexican 
people  is  unfounded.  In  contradiction  with  their  gross  imputation, 
which  is  not  supported  by  any  proofs,  principally  because  there 
are  none,  it  affords  me  pleasure  to  refer,  Mr.  Confidential  Agent, 
to  the  following  facts  which  abound  in  evidence  and  which  to  a 
certain  extent  must  be  known  to  you  by  direct  observation.  The 
Mexican  Republic,  Mr.  Confidential  Agent,  is  formed  by  27 
States,  3  Territories,  and  1  Federal  District,  in  which  the  supreme 
power  of  the  Republic  has  its  seat.  Of  these  27  States,  18  of 
them,  the  3  Territories,  and  the  Federal  District  (making  a  total 
of  22  political  entities)  are  under  the  absolute  control  of  the 
present  Government,  which,  aside  from  the  above,  exercises  its 
authority  over  almost  every  port  in  the  Republic  and,  consequently, 
over  the  custom  houses  therein  established.  Its  southern  frontier 
is  open  and  at  peace.  Moreover,  my  Government  has  an  army  of 
80,000  men  in  the  field,  with  no  other  purpose  than  to  insure 
complete  peace  in  the  Republic,  the  only  national  aspiration  and 
solemn  promise  of  the  present  provisional  President. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  willing  to 
act  in  the  most  disinterested  friendship,  it  will  be  difficult  for  it 
to  find  a  more  propitious  opportunity  than  the  following:  If  it 
should  only  watch  that  no  material  and  monetary  assistance  is 
given  to  rebels  who  find  refuge,  conspire,  and  provide  themselves 
with  arms  and  food  on  the  other  side  of  the  border;  if  it  should 
demand  from  its  minor  and  local  authorities  the  strictest  observ 
ance  of  the  neutrality  laws,  I  assure  you,  Mr.  Confidential  Agent, 
that  the  complete  pacification  of  this  Republic  would  be  accom 
plished  within  a  relatively  short  time.  .  .  . 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Wilson  is  laboring  under  a  serious  delusion 
when  he  declares  that  the  present  situation  of  Mexico  is  incom 
patible  with  the  compliance  of  her  international  obligations  and 
with  the  required  maintenance  of  conditions  tolerable  in  Central 
America.  No  charge  has  been  made  by  any  foreign  Government 
accusing  us  of  the  above  lack  of  compliance,  we  are  punctually 
meeting  all  of  our  credits,  we  are  still  maintaining  diplomatic 
missions  cordially  accepted  in  almost  all  the  countries  of  the  world. 
With  regard  to  our  interior  development,  a  contract  has  just  been 
signed  with  Belgian  capitalists  which  means  to  Mexico  the  con 
struction  of  something  like  5,000  kilometers  of  railway.  In 
conclusion,  we  fail  to  see  the  evil  results,  which  are  prejudicial 
only  to  ourselves,  felt  in  Central  America  by  our  present  domestic 
war.  .  .  .  With  reference  to  the  rebels  who  style  themselves 
"Constitutionalists,"  one  of  the  representatives  of  whom  has  been 
given  an  ear  by  Members  of  the  United  States  Senate,  what  could 


Woodrow    Wilson 

there  be  more  gratifying  to  us  than  if,  convinced  of  the  precipice 
to  which  we  are  being  dragged  by  the  resentment  of  their  defeat, 
in  a  moment  of  reaction  they  would  depose  their  rancor  and  add 
their  strength  to  ours  so  that  all  together  we  would  undertake 
the  great  and  urgent  task  of  national  reconstruction?  Unfor 
tunately  they  do  not  avail  themselves  of  the  amnesty  law  enacted 
by  the  provisional  government.  .  .  . 

The  request  that  General  Victoriano  Huerta  should  agree  not  to 
appear  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of  the  Republic  in  the 
coming  election  cannot  be  taken  into  consideration,  because,  aside 
from  its  strange  and  unwarranted  character,  there  is  a  risk  that 
the  same  might  be  interpreted  as  a  matter  of  personal  dislike. 
.  .  .  The  legality  of  the  government  of  General  Huerta  cannot 
be  disputed.  Article  85  of  our  political  constitution  provides: 

If  at  the  beginning  of  a  constitutional  term  neither  the  Presi 
dent  nor  the  Vice-President  elected  present  themselves,  the  Presi 
dent  whose  term  has  expired  will  cease  in  his  functions,  and  the 
secretary  for  foreign  affairs  shall  immediately  take  charge  of  the 
Executive  power  in  the  capacity  of  provisional  President;  and  if 
there  should  be  no  secretary  for  foreign  aifairs,  the  Presidency 
shall  devolve  on  one  of  the  other  secretaries  pursuant  to  the  order 
provided  by  the  law. 

Now,  then,  the  facts  which  occurred  are  the  following:  The 
resignation  of  Francisco  I.  Madero,  constitutional  President,  and 
Jose  Maria  Pino  Suarez,  constitutional  Vice-President  of  the 
Republic.  These  resignations  having  been  accepted,  Pedro 
Lascurain,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  took  charge  by  law  of 
the  vacant  executive  power,  appointing,  as  he  had  the  power  to 
do,  Gen.  Victoriano  Huerta  to  the  post  of  Minister  of  the 
Interior.  As  Mr.  Lascurain  soon  afterwards  resigned,  and  as  his 
resignation  was  immediately  accepted  by  Congress,  Gen.  Vic 
toriano  Huerta  took  charge  of  the  executive  power,  also  by 
operation  of  law,  with  the  provisional  character  and  under  the 
constitutional  promise  already  complied  with  to  issue  a  call  for 
special  elections.  As  will  be  seen,  the  point  of  issue  is  exclusively 
one  of  constitutional  law  in  which  no  foreign  nation,  no  matter 
how  powerful  and  respectable  it  may  be,  should  mediate  in  the 
least.  .  .  . 

With  reference  to  the  final  part  of  the  instructions  of  President 
Wilson,  which  I  beg  to  include  herewith  and  say,  "If  Mexico  can 
suggest  any  better  way  in  which  to  show  our  friendship,  serve  the 
people  of  Mexico,  and  meet  our  international  obligations,  we  are 
more  than  willing  to  consider  the  suggestion,"  that  final  part 
causes  me  to  propose  the  following  equally  decorous  arrangement: 
One,  that  our  ambassador  be  received  in  Washington;  two,  that 
the  United  States  of  America  send  us  a  new  ambassador  without 
previous  conditions. 

And   all  this  threatening   and    distressing   situation   will   have 

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Presidential  Messages f  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

reached  a  happy  conclusion;  mention  will  not  be  made  of  the 
causes  which  might  carry  us,  if  the  tension  persists,  to  no  one 
knows  what  incalculable  extremities  for  two  peoples  who  have  the 
unavoidable  obligation  to  continue  being  friends,  provided,  of 
course,  that  this  friendship  is  based  upon  mutual  respect,  which 
is  indispensable  between  two  sovereign  entities  wholly  equal  before 
law  and  justice.] 

I  am  led  to  believe  that  they  were  rejected  partly  because 
the  authorities  at  Mexico  City  had  been  grossly  misinformed 
and  misled  upon  two  points.  They  did  not  realize  the  spirit 
of  the  American  people  in  this  matter,  their  earnest  friend 
liness  and  yet  sober  determination  that  some  just  solution 
be  found  for  the  Mexican  difficulties ;  and  they  did  not  be 
lieve  that  the  present  administration  spoke  through  Mr. 
Lind,  for  the  people  of  the  United  States.  The  effect  of 
this  unfortunate  misunderstanding  on  their  part  is  to  leave 
them  singularly  isolated  and  without  friends  who  can  effect 
ually  aid  them.  So  long  as  the  misunderstanding  continues 
we  can  only  await  the  time  of  their  awakening  to  a  realiza 
tion  of  the  actual  facts.  We  can  not  thrust  our  good  offices 
upon  them.  The  situation  must  be  given  a  little  more 
time  to  work  itself  out  in  the  new  circumstances ;  and  I  be 
lieve  that  only  a  little  while  will  be  necessary.  For  the 
circumstances  are  new.  The  rejection  of  our  friendship 
makes  them  new  and  will  inevitably  bring  its  own  altera 
tions  in  the  whole  aspect  of  affairs.  The  actual  situation 
of  the  authorities  at  Mexico  City  will  presently  be  revealed. 

Meanwhile,  what  is  it  our  duty  to  do?  Clearly,  every 
thing  that  we  do  must  be  rooted  in  patience  and  done  with 
calm  and  disinterested  deliberation.  Impatience  on  our 
part  would  be  childish,  and  would  be  fraught  with  every 
risk  of  wrong  and  folly.  We  can  afford  to  exercise  the 
self-restraint  of  a  really  great  nation  which  realizes  its 
own  strength  and  scorns  to  misuse  it.  It  was  our  duty  to 
offer  our  active  assistance.  It  is  now  our  duty  to  show 
what  true  neutrality  will  do  to  enable  the  people  of  Mexico 
to  set  their  affairs  in  order  again  and  wait  for  a  further  op- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

portunity  to  offer  our  friendly  counsels.  The  door  is  not 
closed  against  the  resumption,  either  upon  the  initiative  of 
Mexico  or  upon  our  own,  of  the  effort  to  bring  order  out 
of  the  confusion  by  friendly  co-operative  action,  should  for 
tunate  occasion  offer. 

While  we  wait,  the  contest  of  the  rival  forces  will  un 
doubtedly  for  a  little  while  be  sharper  than  ever,  just  be 
cause  it  will  be  plain  that  an  end  must  be  made  of  the 
existing  situation^  and  that  very  promptly;  and  with  the 
increased  activity  of  the  contending  factions  will  come, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  increased  danger  to  the  noncombatants 
in  Mexico  as  well  as  to  those  actually  in  the  field  of  battle. 
The  position  of  outsiders  is  always  particularly  trying  and 
full  of  hazard  where  there  is  civil  strife  and  a  whole  coun 
try  is  upset.  We  should  earnestly  urge  all  Americans  to 
leave  Mexico  at  once,  and  should  assist  them  to  get  away  in 
every  way  possible — not  because  we  would  mean  to  slacken 
in  the  least  our  efforts  to  safeguard  their  lives  and  their 
interests,  but  because  it  is  imperative  that  they  should  take 
no  unnecessary  risks  when  it  is  physically  possible  for  them 
to  leave  the  country.  We  should  let  every  one  who  assumes 
to  exercise  authority  in  any  part  of  Mexico  know  in  the 
most  unequivocal  way  that  we  shall  vigilantly  watch  the 
fortunes  of  those  Americans  who  can  not  get  away,  and 
shall  hold  those  responsible  for  their  sufferings  and  losses 
to  a  definite  reckoning.  That  can  be  and  will  be  made 
plain  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  misunderstanding. 

For  the  rest,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  exercise  the  authority 
conferred  upon  me  by  the  law  of  March  14,  1912,  to  see 
to  it  that  neither  side  to  the  struggle  now  going  on  in  Mex 
ico  receive  any  assistance  from  this  side  the  border.  I  shall 
follow  the  best  practice  of  nations  in  the  matter  of  neutral 
ity  by  forbidding  the  exportation  of  arms  or  munitions  of 
war  of  any  kind  from  the  United  States  to  any  part  of 
the  Republic  of  Mexico — a  policy  suggested  by  several  in 
teresting  precedents  and  certainly  dictated  by  many  mani- 

25 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

fest  considerations  of  practical  expediency.  We  can  not 
in  the  circumstances  be  the  partisans  of  either  party  to  the 
contest  that  now  distracts  Mexico,  or  constitute  ourselves 
the  virtual  umpire  between  them. 

I  am  happy  to  say  that  several  of  the  great  Governments 
of  the  world  have  given  this  Government  their  generous 
moral  support  in  urging  upon  the  provisional  authorities  at 
the  City  of  Mexico  the  acceptance  of  our  proffered  good 
offices  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  were  made.  We  have  not 
acted  in  this  matter  under  the  ordinary  principles  of  inter 
national  obligation.  All  the  world  expects  us  in  such  cir 
cumstances  to  act  as  Mexico's  nearest  friend  and  intimate 
adviser.  This  is  our  immemorial  relation  towards  her. 
There  is  nowhere  any  serious  question  that  we  have  the 
moral  right  in  the  case  or  that  we  are  acting  in  the  interest 
of  a  fair  settlement  and  of  good  government,  not  for  the 
promotion  of  some  selfish  interest  of  our  own.  If  further 
motive  were  necessary  than  our  own  good  will  towards  a 
sister  Republic  and  our  own  deep  concern  to  see  peace  and 
order  prevail  in  Central  America,  this  consent  of  mankind 
to  what  we  are  attempting,  this  attitude  of  the  great  nations 
of  the  world  towards  what  we  may  attempt  in  dealing  with 
this  distressed  people  at  our  doors,  should  make  us  feel  the 
more  solemnly  bound  to  go  to  the  utmost  length  of  patience 
and  forbearance  in  this  painful  and  anxious  business.  The 
steady  pressure  of  moral  force  will  before  many  days  break 
the  barriers  of  pride  and  prejudice  down,  and  we  shall  tri 
umph  as  Mexico's  friends  sooner  than  we  could  trimph 
as  her  enemies — and  how  much  more  handsomely,  with 
how  much  higher  and  finer  satisfactions  of  conscience  and 
of  honor! 


Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  ON  OCCASION  OF  THE  REDEDICATION  AND 

RESTORATION  OF  CONGRESS  HALL,  PHILADELPHIA, 

OCTOBER  25,  1913 

Your  Honor r  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen: 

No  American  could  stand  in  this  place  to-day  and  think 
of  the  circumstances  which  we  are  come  together  to  cele 
brate  without  being  most  profoundly  stirred.  There  has 
come  over  me  since  I  sat  down  here  a  sense  of  deep  sol 
emnity,  because  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  I  saw  ghosts 
crowding — a  great  assemblage  of  spirits  no  longer  visible, 
but  whose  influence  we  still  feel  as  we  feel  the  molding 
power  of  history  itself.  The  men  who  sat  in  this  hall,  to 
whom  we  now  look  back  with  a  touch  of  deep  sentiment, 
were  men  of  flesh  and  blood,  face  to  face  with  extremely 
difficult  problems.  The  population  of  the  United  States 
then  was  hardly  three  times  the  present  population  of  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  and  yet  that  was  a  Nation  as  this  is 
a  Nation,  and  the  men  who  spoke  for  it  were  setting  their 
hands  to  work  which  was  to  last,  not  only  that  their  people 
might  be  happy,  but  that  an  example  might  be  lifted  up  for 
the  instruction  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

I  like  to  read  the  quaint  old  accounts  such  as  Mr.  Day 
has  read  to  us  this  afternoon.  Strangers  came  then  to 
America  to  see  what  the  young  people  that  had  sprung  up 
here  were  like,  and  they  found  men  in  counsel  who  knew 
how  to  construct  governments.  They  found  men  delibera 
ting  here  who  had  none  of  the  appearance  of  novices,  none 
of  the  hesitation  of  men  who  did  not  know  whether  the 
work  they  were  doing  was  going  to  last  or  not;  men  who 
addressed  themselves  to  a  problem  of  construction  as  fami 
liarly  as  we  attempt  to  carry  out  the  traditions  of  a  Gov 
ernment  established  these  187  years. 

I  feel  to-day  the  compulsion  of  these  men,  the  compulsion 
of  examples  which  were  set  up  in  this  place.  And  of  what 
do  their  examples  remind  us  ?  They  remind  us  not  merely 

27 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

of  public  service  but  of  public  service  shot  through  with 
principle  and  honor.  .  .  . 

Politics,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  made  up  in  just  about 
equal  parts  of  comprehension  and  sympathy.  No  man 
ought  to  go  into  politics  who  does  not  comprehend  the  task 
that  he  is  going  to  attack.  He  may  comprehend  it  so  com 
pletely  that  it  daunts  him,  that  he  doubts  whether  his  own 
spirit  is  stout  enough  and  his  own  mind  able  enough  to 
attempt  its  great  undertakings,  but  unless  he  comprehend 
it  he  ought  not  to  enter  it.  After  he  has  comprehended 
it,  there  should  come  into  his  mind  those  profound  im 
pulses  of  sympathy  which  connect  him  with  the  rest  of 
mankind,  for  politics  is  a  business  of  interpretation,  and 
no  men  are  fit  for  it  who  do  not  see  and  seek  more  than 
their  own  advantage  and  interest. 

We  have  stumbled  upon  many  unhappy  circumstances 
in  the  hundred  years  that  have  gone  by  since  the  event 
that  we  are  celebrating.  Almost  all  of  them  have  come 
from  self-centered  men,  men  who  saw  in  their  own  interest 
the  interest  of  the  country,  and  who  did  not  have  vision 
enough  to  read  it  in  wider  terms,  in  the  universal  terms 
of  equity  and  justice  and  the  rights  of  mankind.  I  hear  a 
great  many  people  at  Fourth  of  July  celebrations  laud  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  who  in  between  Julys  shiver 
at  the  plain  language  of  our  bills  of  rights.  The  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  was,  indeed,  the  first  audible  breath 
of  liberty,  but  the  substance  of  liberty  is  written  in  such 
documents  as  the  declaration  of  rights  attached,  for  ex 
ample,  to  the  first  constitution  of  Virginia  which  was  a 
model  for  the  similar  documents  read  elsewhere  into  our 
great  fundamental  charters.  That  document  speaks  in  very 
plain  terms.  The  men  of  that  generation  did  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  every  people  has  a  right  to  choose  its  own  forms 
of  government — not  once,  but  as  often  as  it  pleases — and  to 
accommodate  those  forms  of  government  to  its  existing  in- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

terests  and  circumstances.  Not  only  to  establish  but  to 
alter  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  self-government. 

We  are  just  as  much  under  compulsion  to  study  the  par 
ticular  circumstances  of  our  own  day  as  the  gentlemen 
were  who  sat  in  this  hall  and  set  us  precedents,  not  of 
what  to  do  but  of  how  to  do  it.  Liberty  inheres  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  day.  Human  happiness  consists  in 
the  life  which  human  beings  are  leading  at  the  time  that 
they  live.  I  can  feed  my  memory  as  happily  upon  the  cir 
cumstances  of  the  revolutionary  and  constitutional  period 
as  you  can,  but  I  can  not  feed  all  my  purposes  with  them 
in  Washington  now.  Every  day  problems  arise  which  wear 
some  new  phase  and  aspect,  and  I  must  fall  back,  if  I 
would  serve  my  conscience,  upon  those  things  which  are 
fundamental  rather  than  upon  those  things  which  are  super 
ficial,  and  ask  myself  this  question,  How  are  you  going  to 
assist  in  some  small  part  to  give  the  American  people  and, 
by  example,  the  peoples  of  the  world  more  liberty,  more 
happiness,  more  substantial  prosperity;  and  how  are  you 
going  to  make  that  prosperity  a  common  heritage  instead 
of  a  selfish  possession  ?  .  .  . 

The  men  of  the  day  which  we  now  celebrate  had  a  very 
great  advantage  over  us,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  this  one 
particular:  Life  was  simple  in  America  then.  All  men 
shared  the  same  circumstances  in  almost  equal  degree.  We 
think  of  Washington,  for  example,  as  an  aristocrat,  as  a 
man  separated  by  training,  separated  by  family  and  neigh 
borhood  tradition,  from  the  ordinary  people  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  country.  Have  you  forgotten  the  personal 
history  of  George  Washington?  Do  you  not  know  that  he 
struggled  as  poor  boys  now  struggle  for  a  meager  and  im^ 
perfect  education;  that  he  worked  at  his  surveyor's  tasks 
in  the  lonely  forests;  that  he  knew  all  the  roughness,  all 
the  hardships,  all  the  adventure,  all  the  variety  of  the 
common  life  of  that  day;  and  that  if  he  stood  a  little  stiffly 
in  this  place,  if  he  looked  a  little  aloof,  it  was  because  life 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

had  dealt  hardly  with  him?  All  his  sinews  had  been  stif 
fened  by  the  rough  work  of  making  America.  He  was  a 
man  of  the  people,  whose  touch  had  been  with  them  since 
the  day  he  saw  the  light  first  in  the  old  Dominion  of  Vir 
ginia.  And  the  men  who  came  after  him,,  men,  some  of 
whom  had  drunk  deep  at  the  sources  of  philosophy  and  of 
study,  were,  nevertheless,  also  men  who  on  this  side  of  the 
water  knew  no  complicated  life  but  the  simple  life  of  primi 
tive  neighborhoods.  Our  task  is  very  much  more  difficult. 
That  sympathy  which  alone  interprets  public  duty  is  more 
difficult  for  a  public  man  to  acquire  now  than  it  was  then, 
because  we  live  in  the  midst  of  circumstances  and  conditions 
infinitely  complex. 

No  man  can  boast  that  he  understands  America.  No  man 
can  boast  that  he  has  lived  the  life  of  America,  as  almost 
every  man  who  sat  in  this  hall  in  those  days  could  boast. 
No  man  can  pretend  that  except  by  common  counsel  he 
can  gather  into  his  consciousness  what  the  varied  life  of  this 
people  is.  The  duty  that  we  have  to  keep  open  eyes  and 
open  hearts  and  accessible  understandings  is  a  very  much 
more  difficult  duty  to  perform  than  it  was  in  their  day.  Yet 
how  much  more  important  that  it  should  be  performed,  for 
fear  we  make  infinite  and  irreparable  blunders.  The  city  of 
Washington  is  in  some  respects  self-contained,  and  it  is  easy 
there  to  forget  what  the  rest  of  the  United  States  is  think 
ing  about.  I  count  it  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  almost 
all  the  windows  of  the  White  House  and  its  offices  open 
upon  unoccupied  spaces  that  stretch  to  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac  and  then  out  into  Virginia  and  on  to  the  heavens 
themselves,  and  that  as  I  sit  there  I  can  constantly  forget 
Washington  and  remember  the  United  States.  Not  that 
I  would  intimate  that  all  of  the  United  States  lies  south 
of  Washington,  but  there  is  a  serious  thing  back  of  my 
thought.  If  you  think  too  much  about  being  re-elected, 
it  is  very  difficult  to  be  worth  re-electing.  You  are  so  apt 
to  forget  that  the  comparatively  small  number  of  persons, 

SO 


Woodrow    Wilson 

numerous  as  they  seem  to  be  when  they  swarm,  who  come 
to  Washington  to  ask  for  things,  do  not  constitute  an  im 
portant  proportion  of  the  population  of  the  country,  that  it 
is  constantly  necessary  to  come  away  from  Washington  and 
renew  one's  contact  with  the  people  who  do  not  swarm 
there,  who  do  not  ask  for  anything,  but  who  do  trust  you 
without  their  personal  counsel  to  do  your  duty.  Unless  a 
man  gets  these  contacts  he  grows  weaker  and  weaker.  He 
needs  them  as  Hercules  needed  the  touch  of  mother  earth. 
If  you  lift  him  up  too  high  or  he  lifts  himself  too  high,  he 
loses  the  contact  and  therefore  loses  the  inspiration. 

I  love  to  think  of  those  plain  men,  however  far  from 
plain  their  dress  sometimes  was,  who  assembled  in  this 
hall.  One  is  startled  to  think  of  the  variety  of  costume  and 
color  which  would  now  occur  if  we  were  let  loose  upon  the 
fashions  of  that  age.  Men's  lack  of  taste  is  largely  con 
cealed  now  by  the  limitations  of  fashion.  Yet  these  men, 
who  sometimes  dressed  like  the  peacock,  were,  nevertheless, 
of  the  ordinary  flight  of  their  time.  They  were  birds  of  a 
feather;  they  were  birds  come  from  a  very  simple  breeding; 
they  were  much  in  the  open  heaven.  They  were  beginning, 
when  there  was  so  little  to  distract  their  attention,  to  show 
that  they  could  live  upon  fundamental  principles  of  govern 
ment.  We  talk  those  principles,  but  we  have  not  time  to 
absorb  them.  We  have  not  time  to  let  them  into  our  blood, 
and  thence  have  them  translated  into  the  plain  mandates 
of  action. 

The  very  smallness  of  this  room,  the  very  simplicity  of 
it  all,  all  the  suggestions  which  come  from  its  restoration, 
are  reassuring  things — things  which  it  becomes  a  man  to 
realize.  Therefore  my  therne  here  to-day,  my  only  thought, 
is  a  very  simple  one.  Do  not  let  us  go  back  to  the  annals 
of  those  sessions  of  Congress  to  find  out  what  to  do,  be 
cause  we  live  in  another  age  and  the  circumstances  are  abso 
lutely  different;  but  let  us  be  men  of  that  kind;  let  us  feel 
at  every  turn  the  compulsions  of  principle  and  of  honor 

31 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

which. they  felt;  let  us  free  our  vision  from  temporary  cir 
cumstances  and  look  abroad  at  the  horizon  and  take  into  our 
lungs  the  great  air  of  freedom  which  has  blown  through 
this  country  and  stolen  across  the  seas  and  blessed  people 
everywhere ;  and,  looking  east  and  west  and  north  and  south, 
let  us  remind  ourselves  that  we  are  the  custodians,  in  some 
degree,  of  the  principles  which  have  made  men  free  and 
governments  just. 

WILSON'S   ADDRESS    BEFORE    THE    SOUTHERN    COMMERCIAL 
CONGRESS  AT  MOBILE,  ALA.,  OCTOBER  27,  1913 

[The  Panama  Canal  was  approaching  completion — the  Presi 
dent  himself,  two  weeks  earlier,  having  touched  a  button  in  the 
White  House  and  set  off  an  explosive  which  blasted  away  the  last 
barrier  separating  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific.] 

Your  Excellency,  Mr.  Chairman: 

It  is  with  unaffected  pleasure  that  I  find  myself  here 
to-day.  I  once  before  had  the  pleasure,  in  another  southern 
city,  of  addressing  the  Southern  Commercial  Congress.  I 
then  spoke  of  what  the  future  seemed  to  hold  in  store  for 
this  region,  which  so  many  of  us  love  and  toward  the  future 
of  which  we  all  look  forward  with  so  much  confidence  and 
hope.  But  another  theme  directed  me  here  this  time.  I 
do  not  need  to  speak  of  the  South.  She  has,  perhaps,  ac 
quired  the  gift  of  speaking  for  herself.  I  come  because  I 
want  to  speak  of  our  present  and  prospective  relations  with 
our  neighbors  to  the  south.  I  deemed  it  a  public  duty,  as 
well  as  a  personal  pleasure,  to  be  here  to  express  for  myself 
and  for  the  Government  I  represent  the  welcome  we  all 
feel  to  those  who  represent  the  Latin  American  States. 

The  future,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  going  to  be  very  dif 
ferent  for  this  hemisphere  from  the  past.  These  States 
lying  to  the  south  of  us,  which  have  always  been  our  neigh 
bors,  will  now  be  drawn  closer  to  us  by  innumerable  ties, 
and,  I  hope,  chief  of  all,  by  the  tie  of  a  common  under- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

standing  of  each  other.  Interest  does  not  tie  nations  to 
gether;  it  sometimes  separates  them.  But  sympathy  and 
understanding  does  unite  them,  and  I  believe  that  by  the 
new  route  that  is  just  about  to  be  opened,  while  we  physi 
cally  cut  two  continents  asunder,  we  spiritually  unite  them. 
It  is  a  spiritual  union  which  we  seek. 

I  wonder  if  you  realize,  I  wonder  if  your  imaginations 
have  been  filled  with  the  significance  of  the  tides  of  com 
merce.  Your  governor  alluded  in  very  fit  and  striking 
terms  to  the  voyage  of  Columbus,  but  Columbus  took  his 
voyage  under  compulsion  of  circumstances.  Constantinople 
had  been  captured  by  the  Turks  and  all  the  routes  of  trade 
with  the  East  had  been  suddenly  closed.  If  there  was  not 
a  way  across  the  Atlantic  to  open  those  routes  again,  they 
were  closed  forever,  and  Columbus  set  out  not  to  discover 
America,  for  he  did  not  know  that  it  existed,  but  to  discover 
the  eastern  shores  of  Asia.  He  set  sail  for  Cathay  and 
stumbled  upon  America.  With  that  change  in  the  outlook 
of  the  world,  what  happened?  England,  that  had  been  at 
the  back  of  Europe  with  an  unknown  sea  behind  her,  found 
that  all  things  had  turned  as  if  upon  a  pivot  and  she  was 
at  the  front  of  Europe;  and  since  then  all  the  tides  of 
energy  and  enterprise  that  have  issued  out  of  Europe  have 
seemed  to  be  turned  westward  across  the  Atlantic.  But  you 
will  notice  that  they  have  turned  westward  chiefly  north  of 
the  Equator  and  that  it  is  the  northern  half  of  the  globe 
that  has  seemed  to  be  filled  with  the  media  of  intercourse 
and  of  sympathy  and  of  common  understanding. 

Do  you  not  see  now  what  is  about  to  happen?  These 
great  tides  which  have  been  running  along  parallels  of  lati 
tude  will  now  swing  southward  athwart  parallels  of  lati 
tude,  and  that  opening  gate  at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  will 
open  the  world  to  a  commerce  that  she  has  not  known  be 
fore,  a  commerce  of  intelligence,  of  thought  and  sympathy 
between  North  and  South.  The  Latin  American  States, 
which,  to  their  disadvantage,  have  been  off  the  main  lines, 

33 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

will  now  be  on  the  main  lines.  I  feel  that  these  gentlemen 
honoring  us  with  their  presence  to-day  will  presently  find 
that  some  part,  at  any  rate,  of  the  center  of  gravity  of  the 
world  has  shifted.  Do  you  realize  that  New  York,  for  ex 
ample,  will  be  nearer  the  western  coast  of  South  America 
than  she  is  now  to  the  eastern  coast  of  South  America  ?  Do 
you  realize  that  a  line  drawn  northward  parallel  with  the 
greater  part  of  the  western  coast  of  South  America  will  run 
only  about  150  miles  west  of  New  York?  The  great  bulk 
of  South  America,  if  you  will  look  at  your  globes  (not  at 
your  Mercator's  projection),  lies  eastward  of  the  continent 
of  North  America.  You  will  realize  that  when  you  realize 
that  the  canal  will  run  southeast,  not  southwest,  and  that 
when  you  get  into  the  Pacific  you  will  be  farther  east  than 
you  were  when  you  left  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  These  things 
are  significant,  therefore,  of  this,  that  we  are  closing  one 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  world  and  are  opening  another, 
of  great,  unimaginable  significance. 

There  is  one  peculiarity  about  the  history  of  the  Latin 
American  States  which  I  am  sure  they  are  keenly  aware 
of.  You  hear  of  "concessions"  to  foreign  capitalists  in 
Latin  America.  You  do  not  hear  of  concessions  to  foreign 
capitalists  in  the  United  States.  They  are  not  granted  con 
cessions.  They  are  invited  to  make  investments.  The  work 
is  ours,  though  they  are  welcome  to  invest  in  it.  We  do 
not  ask  them  to  supply  the  capital  and  do  the  work.  It  is 
an  invitation,  not  a  privilege;  and  States  that  are  obliged, 
because  their  territory  does  not  lie  within  the  main  field  of 
modern  enterprise  and  action,  to  grant  concessions  are  in 
this  condition,  that  foreign  interests  are  apt  to  dominate 
their  domestic  affairs,  a  condition  of  affairs  always  dan 
gerous  and  apt  to  become  intolerable.  What  these  States 
are  going  to  see,  therefore,  is  an  emancipation  from  the 
subordination,  which  has  been  inevitable,  to  foreign  enter 
prise  and  an  assertion  of  the  splendid  character  which,  in 
spite  of  these  difficulties,  they  have  again  and  again  been 

34 


Woodrow    Wilson 

able  to  demonstrate.  The  dignity,  the  courage,  the  self- 
possession,  the  self-respect  of  the  Latin  American  States, 
their  achievements  in  the  face  of  all  these  adverse  circum 
stances,  deserve  nothing  but  the  admiration  and  applause 
of  the  world.  They  have  had  harder  bargains  driven  with 
them  in  the  matter  of  loans  than  any  other  peoples  in  the 
world.  Interest  has  been  exacted  of  them  that  was  not 
exacted  of  anybody  else,  because  the  risk  was  said  to  be 
greater;  and  then  securities  were  taken  that  destroyed  the 
risk — an  admirable  arrangement  for  those  who  were  forcing 
the  terms !  I  rej  oice  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  the  prospect 
that  they  will  now  be  emancipated  from  these  conditions, 
and  we  ought  to  be  the  first  to  take  part  in  assisting  in  that 
emancipation.  I  think  some  of  these  gentlemen  have  already 
had  occasion  to  bear  witness  that  the  Department  of  State 
in  recent  months  has  tried  to  serve  them  in  that  wise.  In 
the  future  they  will  draw  closer  and  closer  to  us  because 
.of  circumstances  of  which  I  wish  to  speak  with  moderation 
and,  I  hope,  without  indiscretion. 

We  must  prove  ourselves  their  friends,  and  champions 
upon  terms  of  equality  and  honor.  You  can  not  be  friends 
upon  any  other  terms  than  upon  the  terms  of  equality.  You 
can  not  be  friends  at  all  except  upon  the  terms  of  honor. 
We  must  show  ourselves  friends  by  comprehending  their 
interest  whether  it  squares  with  our  own  interest  or  not. 
It  is  a  very  perilous  thing  to  determine  the  foreign  policy 
of  a  nation  in  the  terms  of  material  interest.  It  not  only  is 
unfair  to  those  with  whom  you  are  dealing,  but  it  is  de 
grading  as  regards  your  own  actions. 

Comprehension  must  be  the  soil  in  which  shall  grow  all 
the  fruits  of  friendship,  and  there  is  a  reason  and  a  com 
pulsion  lying  behind  all  this  which  is  dearer  than  anything 
else  to  the  thoughtful  men  of  America.  I  mean  the  develop 
ment  of  constitutional  liberty  in  the  world.  Human  rights, 
national  integrity,  and  opportunity  as  against  material  in 
terests — that,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  issue  which  we 

36 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

now  have  to  face.  I  want  to  take  this  occasion  to  say  that 
the  United  States  will  never  again  seek  one  additional  foot 
of  territory  by  conquest.  She  will  devote  herself  to  show 
ing  that  she  knows  how  to  make  honorable  and  fruitful  use 
of  the  territory  she  has,  and  she  must  regard  it  as  one  of 
the  duties  of  friendship  to  see  that  from  no  quarter  are 
material  interests  made  superior  to  human  liberty  and  na 
tional  opportunity.  I  say  this,  not  with  a  single  thought 
that  anyone  will  gainsay  it,  but  merely  to  fix  in  our  con 
sciousness  what  our  real  relationship  with  the  rest  of 
America  is.  It  is  the  relationship  of  a  family  of  mankind 
devoted  to  the  development  of  true  constitutional  liberty. 
We  know  that  that  is  the  soil  out  of  which  the  best  enter 
prise  springs.  We  know  that  this  is  a  cause  which  we  are 
making  in  common  with  our  neighbors,  because  we  have  had 
to  make  it  for  ourselves.  .  .  . 

I  know  what  the  response  of  the  thought  and  heart  of 
America  will  be  to  the  program  I  have  outlined,  because 
America  was  created  to  realize  a  program  like  that.  This  is 
not  America  because  it  is  rich.  This  is  America  because  it 
has  set  up  for  a  great  population  great  opportunities  of 
material  prosperity.  America  is  a  name  which  sounds  in 
the  ears*  of  men  everywhere  as  a  synonym  with  individual 
opportunity  because  a  synonym  of  individual  liberty.  I 
would  rather  belong  to  a  poor  nation  that  was  free  than  to 
a  rich  nation  that  had  ceased  to  be  in  love  with  liberty.  But 
we  shall  not  be  poor  if  we  love  liberty,  because  the  nation 
that  loves  liberty  truly  sets  every  man  free  to  do  his  best 
and  be  his  best,  and  that  means  the  release  of  all  the 
splendid  energies  of  a  great  people  who  think  for  them 
selves.  .  .  . 

In  emphasizing  the  points  which  must  unite  us  in  sym 
pathy  and  in  spiritual  interest  with  the  Latin  American 
peoples  we  are  only  emphasizing  the  points  of  our  own 
life,  and  we  should  prove  ourselves  untrue  to  our  own  tradi 
tions  if  we  proved  ourselves  untrue  friends  to  them.  .  .  «, 

36 


Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  FIRST  ANNUAL  MESSAGE 

(Delivered  before   Congress   in  Joint  Session, 
December   2,    1913) 

[The  custom  of  including  departmental  reports  in  the  President's 
annual  message  is  here  abandoned  by  Mr.  Wilson;  and  this  message 
is  therefore  noticeably  shorter  than  those  of  his  predecessors.] 

Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  President,  Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 
In  pursuance  of  my  constitutional  duty  to  "give  to  the 
Congress  information  of  the  state  of  the  Union,"  I  take  the 
liberty  of  addressing  you  on  several  matters  which  ought, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  particularly  to  engage  the  attention  of 
your  honorable  bodies,  as  of  all  who  study  the  welfare 
and  progress  of  the  Nation. 

I  shall  ask  your  indulgence  if  I  venture  to  depart  in 
some  degree  from  the  usual  custom  of  setting  before  you  in 
formal  review  the  many  matters  which  have  engaged  the 
attention  and  called  for  the  action  of  the  several  depart 
ments  of  the  Government  or  which  look  to  them  for  early 
treatment  in  the  future,  because  the  list  is  long,  very  long, 
and  would  suffer  in  the  abbreviation  to  which  I  should  have 
to  subject  it.  I  shall  submit  to  you  the  reports  of  the  heads 
of  the  several  departments,  in  which  these  subjects  are  set 
forth  in  careful  detail,  and  beg  that  they  may  receive  the 
thoughtful  attention  of  your  committees  and  of  all  Mem 
bers  of  the  Congress  who  may  have  the  leisure  to  study 
them.  Their  obvious  importance,  as  constituting  the  very 
substance  of  the  business  of  the  Government,  makes  com 
ment  and  emphasis  on  my  part  unnecessary. 

The  country,  I  am  thankful  to  say,  is  at  peace  with  all 
the  world,  and  many  happy  manifestations  multiply  about 
us  of  a  growing  cordiality  and  sense  of  community  of  inter 
est  among  the  nations,  foreshadowing  an  age  of  settled 
peace  and  good  will.  More  and  more  readily  each  decade 
do  the  nations  manifest  their  willingness  to  bind  them- 

37 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

selves  by  solemn  treaty  to  the  processes  of  peace,  the  proc 
esses  of  frankness  and  fair  concession.  So  far  the  United 
States  has  stood  at  the  front  of  such  negotiations.  She 
will,  I  earnestly  hope  and  confidently  believe,  give  fresh 
proof  of  her  sincere  adherence  to  the  cause  of  international 
friendship  by  ratifying  the  several  treaties  of  arbitration 
awaiting  renewal  by  the  Senate.  In  addition  to  these, 
it  has  been  the  privilege  of  the  Department  of  State  to  gain 
the  assent,  in  principle,  of  no  less  than  31  nations,  repre 
senting  four-fifths  of  the  population  of  the  world,  to  the 
negotiation  of  treaties  by  which  it  shall  be  agreed  that 
whenever  differences  of  interest  or  of  policy  arise  which 
can  not  be  resolved  by  the  ordinary  processes  of  diplomacy 
they  shall  be  publicly  analyzed,  discussed,  and  reported 
upon  by  a  tribunal  chosen  by  the  parties  before  either 
nation  determines  its  course  of  action. 

There  is  only  one  possible  standard  by  which  to  deter 
mine  controversies  between  the  United  States  and  other 
nations,  and  that  is  compounded  of  these  two  elements: 
Our  own  honor  and  our  obligations  to  the  peace  of  the 
world.  A  test  so  compounded  ought  easily  to  be  made  to 
govern  both  the  establishment  of  new  treaty  obligations  and 
the  interpretation  of  those  already  assumed. 

There  is  but  one  cloud  upon  our  horizon.  That  has 
shown  itself  to  the  south  of  us,  and  hangs  over  Mexico. 
There  can  be  no  certain  prospect  of  peace  in  America  until 
General  Huerta  has  surrendered  his  usurped  authority  in 
Mexico;  until  it  is  understood  on  all  hands,  indeed,  that 
such  pretended  governments  will  not  be  countenanced  or 
dealt  with  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  We 
are  the  friends  of  constitutional  government  in  America; 
we  are  more  than  its  friends,  we  are  its  champions ;  because 
in  no  other  way  can  our  neighbors,  to  whom  we  would  wish 
in  every  way  to  make  proof  of  our  friendship,  work  out 
their  own  development  in  peace  and  liberty.  Mexico  has  no 
Government.  The  attempt  to  maintain  one  at  the  City  of 

38 


Woodrow    Wilson 

Mexico  has  broken  down,  and  a  mere  miltary  despotism 
has  been  set  up  which  has  hardly  more  than  the  semblance 
of  national  authority.  It  originated  in  the  usurpation  of 
Victoriano  Huerta,  who,  after  a  brief  attempt  to  play  the 
part  of  constitutional  President,  has  at  last  cast  aside  even 
the  pretense  of  legal  right  and  declared  himself  dictator. 
As  a  consequence,  a  condition  of  affairs  now  exists  in  Mex 
ico  which  has  made  it  doubtful  whether  even  the  most  ele 
mentary  and  fundamental  rights  either  of  her  own  people 
or  of  the  citizens  of  other  countries  resident  within  her  ter 
ritory  can  long  be  successfully  safeguarded,  and  which 
threatens,  if  long  continued,  to  imperil  the  interests  of 
peace,  order,  and  tolerable  life  in  the  lands  immediately 
to  the  south  of  us.  Even  if  the  usurper  had  succeeded  in 
his  purposes,  in  despite  of  the  constitution  of  the  Republic 
and  the  rights  of  its  people,  he  would  have  set  up  nothing 
but  a  precarious  and  hateful  power,  which  could  have  lasted 
but  a  little  while,  and  whose  eventual  downfall  would  have 
left  the  country  in  a  more  deplorable  condition  than  ever. 
But  he  has  not  succeeded.  He  has  forfeited  the  respect  and 
the  moral  support  even  of  those  who  were  at  one  time  willing 
to  see  him  succeed.  Little  by  little  he  has  been  completely 
isolated.  By  a  little  every  day  his  power  and  prestige 
are  crumbling  and  the  collapse  is  not  far  away.  We  shaft 
not,  I  believe,  be  obliged  to  alter  our  policy  of  watchful 
waiting.  And  then,  when  the  end  comes,  we  shall  hope  to 
see  constitutional  order  restored  in  distressed  Mexico  by 
the  concert  and  energy  of  such  of  her  leaders  as  prefer  the 
liberty  of  their  people  to  their  own  ambitions. 

I  turn  to  matters  of  domestic  concern.  You  already 
have  under  consideration  a  bill  for  the  reform  of  our  sys 
tem  of  banking  and  currency,  for  which  the  country  waits 
with  impatience,  as  for  something  fundamental  to  its  whole 
business  life  and  necessary  to  set  credit  free  from  arbitrary 
and  artificial  restraints.  I  need  not  say  how  earnestly 
I  hope  for  its  early  enactment  into  law.  I  take  leave  to 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

beg  that  the  whole  energy  and  attention  of  the  Senate  be 
concentrated  upon  it  till  the  matter  is  successfully  disposed 
of.  And  yet  I  feel  that  the  request  is  not  needed — that 
the  Members  of  that  great  House  need  no  urging  in  this 
service  to  the  country. 

I  present  to  you,  in  addition,  the  urgent  necessity  that 
special  provision  be  made  also  for  facilitating  the  credits 
needed  by  the  farmers  of  the  country.  The  pending  cur 
rency  bill  does  the  farmers  a  great  service.  It  puts  them 
upon  an  equal  footing  with  other  business  men  and  masters 
of  enterprise,  as  it  should;  and  upon  its  passage  they  will 
find  themselves  quit  of  many  of  the  difficulties  which  now 
hamper  them  in  the  field  of  credit.  The  farmers,  of 
course,  ask  and  should  be  given  no  special  privilege,  such 
as  extending  to  them  the  credit  of  the  Government  itself. 
What  they  need  and  should  obtain  is  legislation  which  will 
make  their  own  abundant  and  substantial  credit  resources 
available  as  a  foundation  for  joint,  concerted  local  action 
in  their  own  behalf  in  getting  the  capital  they  must  use. 
It  is  to  this  we  should  now  address  ourselves. 

It  has,  singularly  enough,  come  to  pass  that  we  have  al 
lowed  the  industry  of  our  farms  to  lag  behind  the  other 
activities  of  the  country  in  its  development.  I  need  not 
stop  to  tell  you  how  fundamental  to  the  life  of  the  Nation 
is  the  production  of  its  food.  Our  thoughts  may  ordinarily 
be  concentrated  upon  the  cities  and  the  hives  of  industry, 
upon  the  cries  of  the  crowded  market  place  and  the  clangor 
of  the  factory,  but  it  is  from  the  quiet  interspaces  of  the 
open  valleys  and  the  free  hillsides  that  we  draw  the 
sources  of  life  and  of  prosperity,  from  the  farm  and  the 
ranch,  from  the  forest  and  the  mine.  Without  these  every 
street  would  be  silent,  every  office  deserted,  every  factory 
fallen  into  disrepair.  And  yet  the  farmer  does  not  stand 
upon  the  same  footing  with  the  forester  and  the  miner  in 
the  market  of  credit.  He  is  the  servant  of  the  seasons. 
Nature  determines  how  long  he  must  wait  for  his  crops, 

40 


Woodrow    Wilson 

and  will  not  be  hurried  in  her  processes.  He  may  give 
his  note,  but  the  season  of  its  maturity  depends  upon  the 
season  when  his  crop  matures,  lies  at  the  gates  of  the  mar 
ket  where  his  products  are  sold.  And  the  security  he  gives 
is  of  a  character  not  known  in  the  broker's  office  or 
as  familiarly  as  it  might  be  on  the  counter  of  the 
banker. 

The  Agricultural  Department  of  the  Government  is  seek 
ing  to  assist  as  never  before  to  make  farming  an  efficient 
business,  of  wide  cooperative  effort,  in  quick  touch  with  the 
markets  for  foodstuffs.  The  farmers  and  the  Government 
will  henceforth  work  together  as  real  partners  in  this  field, 
where  we  now  begin  to  see  our  way  very  clearly  and  where 
many  intelligent  plans  are  already  being  put  into  execution. 
The  Treasury  of  the  United  States  has,  by  a  timely  and 
well-considered  distribution  of  its  deposits,  facilitated  the 
moving  of  the  crops  in  the  present  season  and  prevented  the 
scarcity  of  available  funds  too  often  experienced  at  such 
times.  But  we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  depend  upon 
extraordinary  expedients.  We  must  add  the  means  by 
which  the  farmer  may  make  his  credit  constantly  and  easily 
available  and  command  when  he  will  the  capital  by  which 
to  support  and  expand  his  business.  We  lag  behind  many 
>ther  great  countries  of  the  modern  world  in  attempting  to 
do  this.  Systems  of  rural  credit  have  been  studied  and 
developed  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  while  we  left  our 
farmers  to  shift  for  themselves  in  the  ordinary  money  mar 
ket.  You  have  but  to  look  about  you  in  any  rural  district 
to  see  the  result,  the  handicap  and  embarrassment  which 
have  been  put  upon  those  who  produce  our  food. 

Conscious  of  this  backwardness  and  neglect  on  our  part, 
the  Congress  recently  authorized  the  creation  of  a  special 
commission  to  study  the  various  systems  of  rural  credit 
which  have  been  put  into  operation  in  Europe,  and  this 
commission  is  already  prepared  to  report.  Its  report  ought 
to  make  it  easier  for  us  to  determine  what  methods  will 

41 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

be  best  suited  to  our  own  farmers.  I  hope  and  believe  that 
the  committees  of  the  Senate  and  House  will  address  them 
selves  to  this  matter  with  the  most  fruitful  results,  and  I 
believe  that  the  studies  and  recently  formed  plans  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  may  be  made  to  serve  them 
very  greatly  in  their  work  of  framing  appropriate  and  ade 
quate  legislation.  It  would  be  indiscreet  and  presumptuous 
in  anyone  to  dogmatize  upon  so  great  and  many-sided  a 
question,  but  I  feel  confident  that  common  counsel  will  pro 
duce  the  results  we  must  all  desire. 

Turn  from  the  farm  to  the  world  of  business  which  cen 
ters  in  the  city  and  in  the  factory,  and  I  think  that  all 
thoughtful  observers  will  agree  that  the  immediate  service 
we  owe  the  business  communities  of  the  country  is  to  pre 
vent  private  monopoly  more  effectually  than  it  has  yet  been 
prevented.  I  think  it  will  be  easily  agreed  that  we  should 
let  the  Sherman  antitrust  law  stand,  unaltered,  as  it  is, 
with  its  debatable  ground  about  it,  but  that  we  should  as 
much  as  possible  reduce  the  area  of  that  debatable  ground 
by  further  and  more  explicit  legislation;  and  should  also 
supplement  that  great  act  by  legislation  which  will  not  only 
clarify  it  but  also  facilitate  its  administration  and  make  it 
fairer  to  all  concerned.  No  doubt  we  shall  all  wish,  and 
the  country  will  expect,  this  to  be  the  central  subject  of  our 
deliberations  during  the  present  session;  but  it  is  a  subject 
so  many-sided  and  so  deserving  of  careful  and  discrimi 
nating  discussion  that  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  addressing 
you  upon  it  in  a  special  message  at  a  later  date  than  this. 
It  is  of  capital  importance  that  the  business  men  of  this 
country  should  be  relieved  of  all  uncertainties  of  law  with 
regard  to  their  enterprises  and  investments  and  a  clear 
path  indicated  which  they  can  travel  without  anxiety.  It 
is  as  important  that  they  should  be  relieved  of  embarrass 
ment  and  set  free  to  prosper  as  that  private  monopoly 
should  be  destroyed.  The  ways  of  action  should  be  thrown 
wide  open. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

I  turn  to  a  subject  which  I  hope  can  be  handled  promptly 
and  without  serious  controversy  of  any  kind.  I  mean  the 
method  of  selecting  nominees  for  the  Presidency  of  the 
United  States.  I  feel  confident  that  I  do  not  misinterpret 
the  wishes  or  the  expectations  of  the  country  when  I  urge 
the  prompt  enactment  of  legislation  which  will  provide 
for  primary  elections  throughout  the  country  at  which 
the  voters  of  the  several  parties  may  choose  their  nominees 
for  the  Presidency  without  the  intervention  of  nominating 
conventions.  I  venture  the  suggestion  that  this  legislation 
should  provide  for  the  retention  of  party  conventions,  but 
only  for  the  purpose  of  declaring  and  accepting  the  verdict 
of  the  primaries  and  formulating  the  platforms  of  the  par 
ties;  and  I  suggest  that  these  conventions  should  consist 
not  of  delegates  chosen  for  this  single  purpose,  but  of  the 
nominees  fer  Congress,  the  nominees  for  vacant  seats  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  the  Senators  whose  terms 
have  not  yet  closed,  the  national  committees,  and  the  candi 
dates  for  the  Presidency  themselves,  in  order  that  platforms 
may  be  framed  by  those  responsible  to  the  people  for  carry 
ing  them  into  effect. 

These  are  all  matters  of  vital  domestic  concern,  and  be 
sides  them,  outside  the  charmed  circle  of  our  own  national 
life  in  which  our  affections  command  us,  as  well  as  our 
consciences,  there  stand  out  our  obligations  toward  our 
territories  oversea.  Here  we  are  trustees.  Porto  Rico, 
Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  are  ours,  indeed,  but  not  ours  to 
do  what  we  please  with.  Such  territories,  once  regarded  as 
mere  possessions,  are  no  longer  to  be  selfishly  exploited; 
they  are  part  of  the  domain  of  public  conscience  and  of 
serviceable  and  enlightened  statesmanship.  We  must  ad 
minister  them  for  the  people  who  live  in  them  and  with 
the  same  sense  of  responsibility  to  them  as  toward  our  own 
people  in  our  domestic  affairs.  No  doubt  we  shall  success 
fully  enough  bind  Porto  Rico  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
to  ourselves  by  ties  of  justice  and  interest  and  affection, 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

but  the  performance  of  our  duty  toward  the  Philippines  is 
a  more  difficult  and  debatable  matter.  We  can  satisfy  the 
obligations  of  generous  justice  toward  the  people  of  Porto 
Bico  by  giving  them  the  ample  and  familiar  rights  and 
privileges  accorded  our  own  citizens  in  our  own  territories 
and  our  .obligations  toward  the  people  of  Hawaii  by  per 
fecting  the  provisions  for  self-government  already  granted 
them,  but  in  the  Philippines  we  must  go  further.  We  must 
hold  steadily  in  view  their  ultimate  independence,  and  we 
must  move  toward  the  time  of  that  independence  as  steadily 
as  the  way  can  be  cleared  and  the  foundations  thoughtfully 
and  permanently  laid. 

Acting  under  the  authority  conferred  upon  the  President 
by  Congress,  I  have  already  accorded  the  people  of  the 
islands  a  majority  in  both  houses  of  their  legislative  body 
by  appointing  five  instead  of  four  native  citizens  to  the 
membership  of  the  commission.  I  believe  that  in  this  way 
we  shall  make  proof  of  their  capacity  in  counsel  and  their 
sense  of  responsibility  in  the  exercise  of  political  power, 
and  that  the  success  of  this  step  will  be  sure  to  clear  our 
view  for  the  steps  which  are  to  follow.  Step  by  step  we 
should  extend  and  perfect  the  system  of  self-government  in 
the  islands,  making  test  of  them  and  modifying  them  as 
experience  discloses  their  successes  and  their  failures;  that 
we  should  more  and  more  put  under  the  control  of  the  na 
tive  citizens  of  the  archipelago  the  essential  instruments  of 
their  life,  their  local  instrumentalities  of  government,  their 
schools,  all  the  common  interest  of  their  communities,  and 
so  by  counsel  and  experience  set  up  a  government  which  all 
the  world  will  see  to  be  suitable  to  a  people  whose  affairs 
are  under  their  own  control.  At  last,  I  hope  and  believe, 
we  are  beginning  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  Filipino 
peoples.  By  their  counsel  and  experience,  rather  than 
by  our  own,  we  shall  learn  how  best  to  serve  them  and  how 
soon  it  will  be  possible  and  wise  to  withdraw  our  super 
vision.  Let  us  once  find  the  path  and  set  out  with  firm  and 

44 


Woodrow    Wilson 

confident  tread  upon  it  and  we  shall  not  wander  from  it  or 
linger  upon  it. 

A  duty  faces  us  with  regard  to  Alaska  which  seems  to 
me  very  pressing  and  very  imperative;  perhaps  I  should 
say  a  double  duty,  for  it  concerns  both  the  political  and 
the  material  development  of  the  Territory.  The  people  of 
Alaska  should  be  given  the  full  Territorial  form  of  govern 
ment,  and  Alaska,  as  a  storehouse,  should  be  unlocked. 
One  key  to  it  is  a  system  of  railways.  These  the  Govern 
ment  should  itself  build  and  administer,  and  the  ports  and 
terminals  it  should  itself  control  in  the  interest  of  all  who 
wish  to  use  them  for  the  service  and  development  of  the 
country  and  its  people. 

But  the  construction  of  railways  is  only  the  first  step;  is 
only  thrusting  in  the  key  to  the  storehouse  and  throwing 
back  the  lock  and  opening  the  door.  How  the  tempting  re 
sources  of  the  country  are  to  be  exploited  is  another  matter, 
to  which  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  from  time  to  time  call 
ing  your  attention,  for  it  is  a  policy  which  must  be  worked 
out  by  well-considered  stages,  not  upon  theory,  but  upon 
lines  of  practical  expediency.  It  is  part  of  our  general 
problem  of  conservation.  We  have  a  freer  hand  in  work 
ing  out  the  problem  in  Alaska  than  in  the  States  of  the 
Union;  and  yet  the  principle  and  object  are  the  same, 
wherever  we  touch  it.  We  must  use  the  resources  of  the 
country,  not  lock  them  up.  There  need  be  no  conflict  or 
jealousy  as  between  State  and  Federal  authorities,  for 
there  can  be  no  essential  difference  of  purpose  between 
them.  The  resources  in  question  must  be  used,  but  not 
destroyed  or  wasted;  used,  but  not  monopolized  upon  any 
narrow  idea  of  individual  rights  as  against  the  abiding 
interests  of  communities.  That  a  policy  can  be  worked 
out  by  conference  and  concession  which  will  release  these 
resources  and  yet  not  jeopard  or  dissipate  them,  I  for  one 
have  no  doubt;  and  it  can  be  done  on  lines  of  regulation 
which  need  be  no  less  acceptable  to  the  people  and  gov- 

45 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

ernments  of  the  States  concerned  than  to  the  people  and 
Government  of  the  Nation  at  large,  whose  heritage  these 
resources  are.  We  must  bend  our  counsels  to  this  end. 
A  common  purpose  ought  to  make  agreement  easy. 

Three  or  four  matters  of  special  importance  and  sig 
nificance  I  beg  that  you  will  permit  me  to  mention  in 
closing. 

Our  Bureau  of  Mines  ought  to  be  equipped  and  empow 
ered  to  render  even  more  effectual  service  than  it  renders 
now  in  improving  the  conditions  of  mine  labor  and  making 
the  mines  more  economically  productive  as  well  as  more 
safe.  This  is  an  all-important  part  of  the  work  of  con 
servation;  and  the  conservation  of  human  life  and  energy 
lies  even  nearer  to  our  interest  than  the  preservation  from 
waste  of  our  material  resources. 

We  owe  it,  in  mere  justice  to  the  railway  employees  of 
the  country,  to  provide  for  them  a  fair  and  effective  em 
ployers'  liability  act ;  and  a  law  that  we  can  stand  by  in  this 
matter  will  be  no  less  to  the  advantage  of  those  who  ad 
minister  the  railroads  of  the  country  than  to  the  advantage 
of  those  whom  they  employ.  The  experience  of  a  large 
number  of  the  States  abundantly  proves  that. 

We  ought  to  devote  ourselves  to  meeting  pressing  de 
mands  of  plain  justice  like  this  as  earnestly  as  to  the  ac 
complishment  of  political  and  economic  reforms.  Social 
justice  comes  first.  Law  is  the  machinery  for  its  realiza 
tion  and  is  vital  only  as  it  expresses  and  embodies  it. 

An  international  congress  for  the  discussion  of  all  ques 
tions  that  affect  safety  at  sea  is  now  sitting  in  London  at 
the  suggestion  of  our  own  Government.  So  soon  as  the 
conclusions  of  that  congress  can  be  learned  and  considered 
we  ought  to  address  ourselves,  among  other  things,  to  the 
prompt  alleviation  of  the  very  unsafe,  unjust,  and  burden 
some  conditions  which  now  surround  the  employment  of 
sailors  and  render  it  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  the 
services  of  spirited  and  competent  men  such  as  every  ship 

46 


Woodrow    Wilson 

needs  if  it  is  to  be  safely  handled  and  brought  to  port. 
May  I  not  express  the  very  real  pleasure  I  have  experi 
enced  in  cooperating  with  this  Congress  and  sharing  with 
it  the  labors  of  common  service  to  which  it  has  devoted  it 
self  so  unreservedly  during  the  past  seven  months  of  un 
complaining  concentration  upon  the  business  of  legislation? 
Surely  it  is  a  proper  and  pertinent  part  of  my  report  on 
"the  state  of  the  Union"  to  express  my  admiration  for  the 
diligence.,  the  good  temper,  and  the  full  comprehension  of 
public  duty  which  has  already  been  manifested  by  both 
the  Houses;  and  I  hope  that  it  may  not  be  deemed  an  im 
pertinent  intrusion  of  myself  into  the  picture  if  I  say  with 
how  much  and  how  constant  satisfaction  I  have  availed  my 
self  of  the  privilege  of  putting  my  time  and  energy  at  their 
disposal  alike  in  counsel  and  in  action. 

WILSON'S   SPECIAL   MESSAGE   ON   TRUSTS   AND   MONOPOLIES 

(Delivered  before  Congress  in  Joint  Session  January  20, 

1914) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  Wilson's  views  on  trust  legislation 
were  fairly  well  known,  having  been  embodied  in  the  fa 
mous  New  Jersey  laws  which  became  noted  as  "The  Seven 
Sisters"  while  he  still  was  Governor  of  that  State.  This 
Message  formulated  the  following  definite  laws:  (1)  Pro 
hibition  of  interlocking  directorates,  (#)  government  su 
pervision  of  railway  financing,  (3)  exact  definition  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law,  (4)  an  interstate 
trade  commission  to  direct  and  shape  corrective  processes 
and  inform  the  public,  (<5)  legislation  to  reach  individuals 
responsible  for  corporate  wrong-doing. 

Bills  had  already  been  prepared,  under  the  direction  of 
Henry  D.  Clayton  of  Alabama,  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  House,  who  had  declined  nomination  to 
the  Senate  on  Wilson's  public  request  that  he  remain  in  the 
House  to  formulate  this  legislation. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

The  bills,  known  first  as  the  "Five  Brothers,"  finally 
were  merged  into  one  bill,  the  Clayton  anti-trust  bill,  and 
passed  in  October,  1914-  The  Federal  Trade  Commission 
taw  was  passed  September, 


Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  President,  gentlemen  of  the  Congress, 
in  my  report  "on  the  state  of  the  Union/'  which  I  had  the 
privilege  of  reading  to  you  on  the  2d  of  December  last,  I 
ventured  to  reserve  for  discussion  at  a  later  date  the  subject 
of  additional  legislation  regarding  the  very  difficult  and  in 
tricate  matter  of  trusts  and  monopolies.  The  time  now 
seems  opportune  to  turn  to  that  great  question,  not  only 
because  the  currency  legislation,  which  absorbed  your  at 
tention  and  the  attention  of  the  cbuntry  in  December,  is 
now  disposed  of,  but  also  because  opinion  seems  to  be  clear 
ing  about  us  with  singular  rapidity  in  this  other  great  field 
of  action.  In  the  matter  of  the  currency  it  cleared  sud 
denly  and  very  happily  after  the  much-debated  act  was 
passed;  in  respect  of  the  monopolies  which  have  multiplied 
about  us  and  in  regard  to  the  various  means  by  which  they 
have  been  organized  and  maintained,  it  seems  to  be  coming 
to  a  clear  and  all  but  universal  agreement  in  anticipation  of 
our  action,  as  if  by  way  of  preparation,  making  the  way 
easier  to  see  and  easier  to  set  out  upon  with  confidence  and 
without  confusion  of  counsel. 

Legislation  has  its  atmosphere  like  everything  else,  and 
the  atmosphere  of  accommodation  and  mutual  understand 
ing  which  we  now  breathe  with  so  much  refreshment  is  mat 
ter  of  sincere  congratulation.  It  ought  to  make  our  task 
very  much  less  difficult  and  embarrassing  than  it  would 
have  been  had  we  been  obliged  to  continue  to  act  amidst 
the  atmosphere  of  suspicion  and  antagonism  which  has  so 
long  made  it  impossible  to  approach  such  questions  with 
dispassionate  fairness.  Constructive  legislation,  when  suc 
cessful,  is  always  the  embodiment  of  convincing  experience 
and  of  the  mature  public  opinion  which  finally  springs  out 

48 


Woodrow    Wilson 

of  that  experience.  Legislation  is  a  business  of  interpreta 
tion,  not  of  origination ;  and  it  is  now  plain  what  the  opinion 
is  to  which  we  must  give  effect  in  this  matter.  It  is  not 
recent  or  hasty  opinion.  It  springs  out  of  the  experience  of 
a  whole  generation.  It  has  clarified  itself  by  long  contest, 
and  those  who  for  a  long  time  battled  with  it  and  sought  to 
change  it  are  now  frankly  and  honorably  yielding  to  it  and 
seeking  to  conform  their  actions  to  it. 

The  great  business  men  who  organized  and  financed 
monopoly  and  those  who  administered  it  in  actual  everyday 
transactions  have^  year  after  year  until  now,  either  denied 
its  existence  or  justified  it  as  necessary  for  the  effective 
maintenance  arid  development  of  the  vast  business  processes 
of  the  country  in  the  modern  circumstances  of  trade  and 
manufacture  and  finance ;  but  all  the  while  opinion  has  made 
head  against  them.  The  average  business  man  is  convinced 
that  the  ways  of  liberty  are  also  the  ways  of  peace  and  the 
ways  of  success  as  well ;  and  at  last  the  masters  of  business 
on  the  great  scale  have  begun  to  yield  their  preference  and 
purpose,  perhaps  their  judgment  also,  in  honorable  sur 
render. 

What  we  are  purposing  to  do,  therefore,  is,  happily,  not 
to  hamper  or  interfere  with  business  as  enlightened  business 
men  prefer  to  do  it,  or  in  any  sense  to  put  it  under  the  ban. 
The  antagonism  between  business  and  Government  is  over. 
We  are  now  about  to  give  expression  to  the  best  business 
judgment  of  America,  to  what  we  know  to  be  the  business 
conscience  and  honor  of  the  land.  The  Government  and 
business  men  are  ready  to  meet  each  other  halfway  in  a 
common  effort  to  square  business  methods  with  both  public 
opinion  and  the  law.  The  best-informed  men  of  the  busi 
ness  world  condemn  the  methods  and  processes  and  conse 
quences  of  monopoly  as  we  condemn  them,  and  the  instinc 
tive  judgment  of  the  vast  majority  of  business  men  every 
where  goes  with  them.  We  shall  now  be  their  spokes 
men.  That  is  the  strength  of  our  position  and  the 

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Presidential  Messages,  'Addresses  and  State  Papers 

sure  prophecy  of  what  will  ensue  when  our  reasonable  work 
is  done. 

When  serious  contest  ends,  when  men  unite  in  opinion 
and  purpose,  those  who  are  to  change  their  ways  of  business 
joining  with  those  who  ask  for  the  change,  it  is  possible  to 
effect  it  in  the  way  in  which  prudent  and  thoughtful  and 
patriotic  men  would  wish  to  see  it  brought  about,  with  as 
few,  as  slight,  as  easy  and  simple  business  readjustments  as 
possible  in  the  circumstances,  nothing  essential  disturbed, 
nothing  torn  up  by  the  roots,  no  parts  rent  asunder  which 
can  be  left  in  wholesome  combination.  Fortunately,  no 
measures  of  sweeping  or  novel  change  are  necessary.  It 
will  be  understood  that  our  object  is  not  to  unsettle  business 
or  anywhere  seriously  to  break  its  established  courses 
athwart.  On  the  contrary,  we  desire  the  laws  we  are  now 
about  to  pass  to  be  the  bulwarks  and  safeguards  of  in 
dustry  against  the  forces  who  have  disturbed  it.  What  we 
have  to  do  can  be  done  in  a  new  spirit,  in  thoughtful  mod 
eration,  without  revolution  of  any  untoward  kind. 

We  are  all  agreed  that  "private  monopoly  is  indefensible 
and  intolerable,"  and  our  program  is  founded  upon  that 
conviction.  It  will  be  a  comprehensive  but  not  a  radical 
or  unacceptable  program  and  these  are  its  items,  the 
changes  which  opinion  deliberately  sanctions  and  for  which 
business  waits: 

It  waits  with  acquiescence,  in  the  first  place,  for  laws 
which  will  effectually  prohibit  and  prevent  such  interlork- 
ings  of  the  personnel  of  the  directorates  of  great  corpora 
tions — banks  and  railroads,  industrial,  commercial,  and  pub 
lic  service  bodies — as  in  effect  result  in  making  those  who 
borrow  and  those  who  lend  practically  one  and  the  same, 
those  who  sell  and  those  who  buy  but  the  same  persons 
trading  with  one  another  under  different  names  and  in  dif 
ferent  combinations,  and  those  who  affect  to  compete  in 
fact  partners  and  masters  of  some  whole  field  of  business. 
Sufficient  time  should  be  allowed,  of  course,  in  which  to 

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Wood  row    Wilson 

effect  these  changes  of  organization  without  inconvenience 
or  confusion. 

Such  a  prohibition  will  work  much  more  than  a  mere 
negative  good  by  correcting  the  serious  evils  which  have 
arisen  because,  for  example,  the  men  who  have  been  the 
directing  spirits  of  the  great  investment  banks  have  usurped 
the  place  which  belongs  to  independent  industrial  manage 
ment  working  in  its  own  behoof.  It  will  bring  new  men, 
new  energies,  a  new  spirit  of  initiative,  new  blood,  into  the 
management  of  our  great  business  enterprises.  It  will  open 
the  field  of  industrial  development  and  origination  to  scores 
of  men  who  have  been  obliged  to  serve  when  their  abilities 
entitled  them  to  direct.  It  will  immensely  hearten  the 
young  men  coming  on  and  will  greatly  enrich  the  business 
activities  of  the  whole  country. 

In  the  second  place,  business  men  as  well  as  those  who 
direct  public  affairs  now  recognize,  and  recognize  with  pain 
ful  clearness,  the  great  harm  and  injustice  which  has  been 
done  to  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  great  railroad  systems  of 
the  country  by  the  way  in  which  they  have  been  financed 
and  their  own  distinctive  interests  subordinated  to  the  in 
terests  of  the  men  who  financed  them  and  of  other  business 
enterprises  which  those  men  wished  to  promote.  The  coun 
try  is  ready,  therefore,  to  accept,  and  accept  with  relief  as 
well  as  approval,  a  law  which  will  confer  upon  the  Inter 
state  Commerce  Commission  the  power  to  superintend  and 
regulate  the  financial  operations  by  which  the  railroads  are 
henceforth  to  be  supplied  with  the  money  they  need  for 
their  proper  development  to  meet  the  rapidly  growing 
requirements  of  the  country  for  increased  and  improved 
facilities  of  transportation.  We  can  not  postpone  action 
in  this  matter  without  leaving  the  railroads  exposed  to 
many  serious  handicaps  and  hazards;  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  railroads  and  the  prosperity  of  the  country  are  in 
separably  connected.  Upon  this  question  those  who  are 
chiefly  responsible  for  the  actual  management  and  opera- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Paper* 

tion  of  the  railroads  have  spoken  very  plainly  and  very 
earnestly,  with  a  purpose  we  ought  to  be  quick  to  accept. 
It  will  be  one  step,  and  a  very  important  one,  toward  the 
necessary  separation  of  the  business  of  production  from  the 
business  of  transportation. 

The  business  of  the  country  awaits  also,  has  long  awaited 
and  has  suffered  because  it  could  not  obtain,  further  and 
more  explicit  legislative  definition  of  the  policy  and  mean 
ing  of  the  existing  antitrust  law.  Nothing  hampers  business 
like  uncertainty.  Nothing  daunts  or  discourages  it  like  the 
necessity  to  take  chances,  to  run  the  risk  of  falling  under 
the  condemnation  of  the  law  before  it  can  make  sure  just 
what  the  law  is.  Surely  we  are  sufficiently  familiar  with 
the  actual  processes  and  methods  of  monopoly  and  of  the 
many  hurtful  restraints  of  trade  to  make  definition  possible,, 
at  any  rate  up  to  the  limits  of  what  experience  has  dis 
closed.  These  practices,  being  now  abundantly  disclosed, 
can  be  explicitly  and  item  by  item  forbidden  by  statute  in 
such  terms  as  will  practically  eliminate  uncertainty,  the 
law  itself  and  the  penalty  being  made  equally  plain. 

And  the  business  men  of  the  country  desire  something 
more  than  that  the  menace  of  legal  process  in  these  matters 
be  made  explicit  and  intelligible.  They  desire  the  advice, 
the  definite  guidance,  and  information  which  can  be  sup 
plied  by  an  administrative  body,  an  interstate  trade  com 
mission. 

The  opinion  of  the  country  would  instantly  approve  of 
such  a  commission.  It  would  not  wish  to  see  it  empowered 
to  make  terms  with  monopoly  or  in  any  sort  to  assume  con 
trol  of  business,  as  if  the  Government  made  itself  re 
sponsible.  It  demands  such  a  commission  only  as  an 
indispensable  instrument  of  information  and  publicity,  as 
a  clearing  house  for  the  facts  by  which  both  the  public 
mind  and  the  managers  of  great  business  undertakings 
should  be  guided,  and  as  an  instrumentality  for  doing 
justice  to  business  where  the  processes  of  the  courts 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

or  the  natural  forces  of  correction  outside  the  courts  are 
inadequate  to  adjust  the  remedy  to  the  wrong  in  a  way 
that  will  meet  all  the  equities  and  circumstances  of  the  case. 

Producing  industries,  for  example,  which  have  passed 
the  point  up  to  which  combination  may  be  consistent  with 
the  public  interest  and  the  freedom  of  trade,  can  not  always 
be  dissected  into  their  component  units  as  readily  as  rail 
road  companies  or  similar  organizations  can  be.  Their  dis 
solution  by  ordinary  legal  process  may  oftentimes  involve 
financial  consequences  likely  to  overwhelm  the  security  mar 
ket  and  bring  upon  it  breakdown  and  confusion.  There 
ought  to  be  an  administrative  commission  capable  of  di 
recting  and  shaping  such  commission  capable  of  directing 
and  shaping  such  corrective  processes,  not  only  in  aid  of 
the  courts  but  also  by  independent  suggestion,  if  necessary. 

Inasmuch  as  our  object  and  the  spirit  of  our  action  in 
these  matters  is  to  meet  business  half  way  in  its  processes 
of  self-correction  and  disturb  its  legitimate  course  as  little 
as  possible,  we  ought  to  see  to  it,  and  the  judgment  of  prac 
tical  and  sagacious  men  of  affairs  everywhere  would  applaud 
us  if  we  did  see  to  it,  that  penalties  and  punishments  should 
fall  not  upon  business  itself,  to  its  confusion  and  inter 
ruption,  but  upon  the  individuals  who  use  the  instrumentali 
ties  of  business  to  do  things  which  public  policy  and  sound 
business  practice  condemn.  Every  act  of  business  is  done" 
at  the  command  or  upon  the  initiative  of  some  ascertainable 
person  or  group  of  persons.  These  should  be  held  indi 
vidually  responsible  and  the  punishment  should  fall  upon 
them,  not  upon  the  business  organization  of  which  they 
make  illegal  use.  It  should  be  one  of  the  main  objects  of 
our  legislation  to  divest  such  persons  of  their  corporate 
cloak  and  deal  with  them  as  with  those  who  do  not  repre 
sent  their  corporations,  but  merely  by  deliberate  intention 
break  the  law.  Business  men  the  country  through  would, 
I  am  sure,  applaud  us  if  we  were  to  take  effectual  steps 
to  see  that  the  officers  and  directors  of  great  business  bodies 

53 


Presidential  Messages ,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

were  prevented  from  bringing  them  and  the  business  of  the 
country  into  disrepute  and  danger. 

Other  questions  remain  which  will  need  very  thoughtful 
and  practical  treatment.  Enterprises  in  these  modern  days 
of  great  individual  fortunes  are  oftentimes  interlocked,  not 
by  being  under  the  control  of  the  same  directors  but  by 
the  fact  that  the  greater  part  of  their  corporate  stock  is 
owned  by  a  single  person  or  group  of  persons  who  are  in 
some  way  intimately  related  in  interest.  We  are  agreed, 
I  take  it,  that  holding  companies  should  be  prohibited,  but 
what  of  the  controlling  private  ownership  of  individuals  or 
actually  co-operative  groups  of  individuals  ?  Shall  the  priv 
ate  owners  of  capital  stock  be  suffered  to  be  themselves  in 
effect  holding  companies?  We  do  not  wish,  I  suppose,  to 
forbid  the  purchase  of  stocks  by  any  person  who  pleases 
to  buy  them  in  such  quantities  as  he  can  afford,  or  in  any 
way  arbitrarily  to  limit  the  sale  of  stocks  to  bona  fide  pur 
chasers.  Shall  we  require  the  owners  of  stock,  when  their 
voting  power  in  several  companies  which  ought  to  be  inde 
pendent  of  one  another  would  constitute  actual  control,  to 
make  election  in  which  of  them  they  will  exercise  their  right 
to  vote?  This  question  I  venture  for  your  consideration. 

There  is  another  matter  in  which  imperative  considera 
tions  of  justice  and  fair  play  suggest  thoughtful  remedial 
action.  Not  only  do  many  of  the  combinations  effected  or 
sought  to  be  effected  in  the  industrial  world  work  an  in 
justice  upon  the  public  in  general;  they  also  directly  and 
seriously  injure  the  individuals  who  are  put  out  of  business 
in  one  unfair  way  or  another  by  the  many  dislodging  and 
exterminating  forces  of  combination.  I  hope  that  we  shall 
agree  in  giving  private  individuals  who  claim  to  have  been 
injured  by  theses  processes  the  right  to  found  their  suits 
for  redress  upon  the  facts  and  judgments  proved  and  en 
tered  in  suits  by  the  Government  where  the  Government 
has  upon  its  own  initiative  sued  the  combinations  com 
plained  of  and  won  its  suit,  and  that  the  statute  of  limita* 

54 


Woodrow    Wilson 

tions  shall  be  suffered  to  run  against  such  litigants  only 
from  the  date  of  the  conclusion  of  the  Government's  action. 
It  is  not  fair  that  the  private  litigant  should  be  obliged  to 
set  up  and  establish  again  the  facts  which  the  Government 
has  proved.  He  can  not  afford,  he  has  not  the  power,  to 
make  use  of  such  processes  of  inquiry  as  the  Government 
has  command  of.  Thus  shall  individual  justice  be  done 
while  the  processes  of  business  are  rectified  and  squared 
with  the  general  conscience. 

I  have  laid  the  case  before  you,  no  doubt,  as  it  lies  in 
your  own  mind,  as  it  lies  in  the  thought  of  the  country. 
What  must  every  candid  man  say  of  the  suggestions  I  have 
laid  before  you,  of  the  plain  obligations  of  which  I  have 
reminded  you?  That  these  are  new  things  for  which  the 
country  is  not  prepared?  No;  but  that  they  are  old  things, 
now  familiar,  and  must  of  course  be  undertaken  if  we  are 
to  square  our  laws  with  the  thought  and  desire  of  the  coun 
try.  Until  these  things  are  done,  conscientious  business 
men  the  country  over  will  be  unsatisfied.  They  are  in  these 
tilings  our  mentors  and  colleagues.  We  are  now  about  to 
write  the  additional  articles  of  our  constitution  of  peace, 
the  peace  that  is  honor  and  freedom  and  prosperity. 

THE  Two  PROCLAMATIONS  CONCERNING  THE  SHIPMENT  OF 
ARMS  INTO  MEXICO 

Whereas,  by  a  proclamation  of  the  President  issued  on 
March  14,  1912,  under  a  Joint  Resolution  of  Congress 
approved  by  the  President  on  the  same  day,  it  was  de 
clared  that  there  existed  in  Mexico  conditions  of  domestic 
violence  which  were  promoted  by  the  use  of  arms  or  muni 
tions  of  war  procured  from  the  United  States;  and 

Whereas,  by  the  Joint  Resolution  above  mentioned  it 
thereupon  became  unlawful  to  export  arms  or  munitions  of 
war  to  Mexico  except  under  such  limitations  and  exceptions 
as  the  President  should  prescribe: 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Now,  therefore,  I,  WOODROW  WILSON,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  hereby  proclaim  that,  as  the  con 
ditions  on  which  the  Proclamation  of  March  14-,  1912,  was 
based  have  essentially  changed,  and  as  it  is  desirable  to 
place  the  United  States  with  reference  to  the  exportation 
of  arms  or  munitions  of  war  to  Mexico  in  the  same  position 
as  other  Powers,  the  said  Proclamation  is  hereby  revoked. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington  this  third  day  of  Febru 
ary,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  fourteen,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 
the  one  hundred  and  thirty-eighth. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

By  the  President: 

W.  J.  BRYAN,  Secretary  of  State. 

Whereas,  a  Joint  Resolution  of  Congress,  approved 
March  14,  1912,  provides:  "That  whenever  the  President 
shall  find  that  in  any  American  country  conditions  of  do 
mestic  violence  exist  which  are  promoted  by  the  use  of 
arms  or  munitions  of  war  procured  from  the  United 
States,  and  shall  make  proclamation  thereof,  it  shall  be 
unlawful  to  export  except  under  such  limitations  as  the 
President  shall  prescribe  any  arms  or  munitions  of  war 
from  the  United  States  to  such  country  until  otherwise 
ordered  by  the  President  or  by  Congress"; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  do  hereby  proclaim  that  I  have 
found  that  there  exist  in  Mexico  such  conditions  of  domestic 
violence  promoted  by  the  use  of  arms  or  munitions  of  war, 
procured  from  the  United  States  as  contemplated  by  the 
said  Joint  Resolution ;  and  I  do  hereby  admonish  all  citizens 
of  the  United  States  and  every  person  to  abstain  from  every 
violation  of  the  provisions  of  the  Joint  Resolution  above  set 
forth,  hereby  made  applicable  to  Mexico,  and  I  do  hereby 
warn  them  that  all  violations  of  such  provisions  will  be 
rigorously  prosecuted.  And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  all 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

officers  of  the  United  States,  charged  with  the  execution  of 
the  laws  thereof,  the  utmost  diligence  in  preventing  viola 
tions  of  the  said  Joint  Resolution  and  this  my  Proclama 
tion  issued  thereunder,  and  in  bringing  to  trial  and  pun 
ishment  any  offenders  against  the  same. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  this  nineteenth  day  of 
October  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  fifteen  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 
of  America  the  one  hundred  and  fortieth. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

By  the  President: 

ROBERT  LANSING,  Secretary  of  State. 

[On  the  same  day  (October  19)  the  President  ordered  that  an 
exception  be  made  in  favor  of  the  Carranza  de  facto  government,, 
by  permitting  arms  shipments  into  the  territory  under  that  govern 
ment's  control.] 

WILSON  URGES  REPEAL  OF  LAW  GIVING  AMERICAN  COAST 
WISE  SHIPS  FREEDOM  FROM  PANAMA  TOLLS 

(Delivered  before  Congress,  Joint  Session,  March  5,  1914.) 
[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  Panama  Canal  Act  had  granted 
passage  of  the  canal  to  American  coastwise  ships  free  of 
tolls.  The  question  of  whether  or  not  this  was  a  violation 
of  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  was  vehemently  debated  in 
the  United  States,  but  the  debate  was,  on  the  whole,  based 
more  on  differing  National  instincts  and  opinions  than 
on  clearly  understood  facts.  The  history  of  Anglo-Ameri 
can  treaties  and  negotiations  over  Central  American  canal 
projects  is  highly  involved  and  only  a  few  specialists  in 
diplomatic  history  and  international  law  could  really  as 
sert  authoritative  knowledge.  As  nearly  as  the  temper  of 
so  huge  a  population  as  ours  could  be  gauged,  it  seems  cor 
rect  to  say  that  the  majority  favored  a  repeal  of  the  act 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  better  for  American  justice  to 
surrender  a  possible  right  than  to  commit  a  possible  injus 
tice.  Congress  responded  favorably  to  the  Message.] 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

I  have  come  to  you  upon  an  errand  which  can  be  very 
briefly  performed,  but  I  beg  that  you  will  not  measure  its 
importance  by  the  number  of  sentences  in  which  I  state  it. 
No  communication  I  have  addressed  to  the  Congress  carried 
with  it  graver  or  more  far-reaching  implications  as  to  the 
interest  of  the  country,  and  I  come  now  to  speak  upon  a 
matter  with  regard  to  which  I  am  charged  in  a  peculiar 
degree,  by  the  Constitution  itself,  with  personal  responsi 
bility. 

I  have  come  to  ask  you  for  the  repeal  of  that  provision 
of  the  Panama  Canal  Act  of  August  24,  1912,  which  ex 
empts  vessels  engaged  in  the  coastwise  trade  of  the  United 
States  from  payment  of  tolls,  and  to  urge  upon  you  the 
justice,  the  wisdom,  and  the  large  policy  of  such  a  repeal 
with  the  utmost  earnestness  of  which  I  am  capable. 

In  my  own  judgment,  very  fully  considered  and  ma 
turely  formed,  that  exemption  constitutes  a  mistaken  eco 
nomic  policy  from  every  point  of  view,  and  is,  moreover, 
in  plain  contravention  of  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  con 
cerning  the  canal  concluded  on  November  18,  1901.  But 
I  have  not  come  to  urge  upon  you  my  personal  views.  I 
have  come  to  state  to  you  a  fact  and  a  situation.  Whatever 
may  be  our  own  differences  of  opinion  concerning  this  much 
debated  measure,  its  meaning  is  not  debated  outside  the 
United  States.  Everywhere  else  the  language  of  the  treaty 
is  given  but  one  interpretation,  and  that  interpretation  pre 
cludes  the  exemption  I  am  asking  you  to  repeal.  We  con 
sented  to  the  treaty;  its  language  we  accepted,  if  we  did 
not  originate  it;  and  we  are  too  big,  too  powerful,  too  self- 
respecting  a  nation  to  interpret  with  a  too  strained  or  re 
fined  reading  the  words  of  our  own  promises  just  because 
we  have  power  enough  to  give  us  leave  to  read  them  as  we 
please.  The  large  thing  to  do  is  the  only  thing  we  can  af 
ford  to  do,  a  voluntary  withdrawal  from  a  position  every 
where  questioned  and  misunderstood.  We  ought  to  reverse 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

our  action  without  raising  the  question  whether  we  were 
right  or  wrong,  and  so  once  more  deserve  our  reputation 
for  generosity  and  for  the  redemption  of  every  obligation 
without  quibble  or  hesitation. 

I  ask  this  of  you  in  support  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
administration.  I  shall  not  know  how  to  deal  with  other 
matters  of  even  greater  delicacy  and  nearer  consequence  if 
you  do  not  grant  it  to  me  in  ungrudging  measure. 

WILSON'S  SPECIAL  MESSAGE  ON  THE  TAMPICO  AFFAIR 

(Delivered  before  Congress  in  Joint  Session  April  20, 
1914.) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

It  is  my  duty  to  call  your  attention  to  a  situation  which 
has  arisen  in  our  dealings  with  Gen.  Victoriano  Huerta  at 
Mexico  City  which  calls  for  action,  and  to  ask  your  advice 
and  co-operation. 

On  April  9  a  Paymaster  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Dolphin  landed 
at  the  Iturbide  bridge  landing  at  Tampico  with  a  whale- 
boat  and  boat's  crew  to  take  off  certain  supplies  for  his 
ship,  and  while  engaged  in  loading  the  boat  was  arrested 
by  an  officer  and  squad  of  men  of  the  army  of  General 
Huerta.  Neither  the  Paymaster  nor  any  one  of  the  crew 
was  armed.  Two  of  the  men  were  in  the  boat  when  the  ar 
rest  was  made,  and  were  obliged  to  leave  it  and  submit  to 
be  taken  into  custody,  notwithstanding  that  the  boat  carried, 
both  at  her  bow  and  her  stern,  the  flag  of  the  United 
States.  The  officer  who  made  the  arrest  was  proceeding 
up  one  of  the  streets  of  the  town  with  his  prisoners  when 
met  by  an  officer  of  higher  authority,  who  ordered  him  to 
return  to  the  landing  and  await  orders,  and  within  an  hour 
and  a  half  from  the  time  of  the  arrfcst,  orders  were  re 
ceived  from  the  commander  of  the  Huertista  forces  at 
Tampico  for  the  release  of  the  Paymaster  and  his  men. 
The  release  was  followed  by  apologies  from  the  commander 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

and  also  by  an  expression  of  regret  by  General  Huerta 
himself.  General  Huerta  urged  that  martial  law  obtained 
at  the  time  at  Tampico,  that  orders  had  been  issued  that 
no  one  should  be  allowed  to  land  at  the  Iturbide  bridge,  and 
that  our  sailors  had  no  right  to  land  there.  Our  naval  com 
manders  at  the  port  had  not  been  notified  of  any  such  pro 
hibition,  and,  even  if  they  had  been,  the  only  justifiable 
course  open  to  the  local  authorities  would  have  been  to  re 
quest  the  Paymaster  and  his  crew  to  withdraw  and  to  lodge 
a  protest  with  the  commanding  officer  of  the  fleet.  Admiral 
Mayo  regarded  the  arrest  as  so  serious  an  affront  that  he 
was  not  satisfied  with  the  apologies  offered,  but  demanded 
that  the  flag  of  the  United  States  be  saluted  with  special 
ceremony  by  the  military  commander  of  the  port. 

The  incident  can  not  be  regarded  as  a  trivial  one,  espe 
cially  as  two  of  the  men  arrested  were  taken  from  the  boat 
itself — that  is  to  say,  from  the  territory  of  the  United 
States;  but  had  it  stood  by  itself,  it  might  have  been  at 
tributed  to  the  ignorance  or  arrogance  of  a  single  officer. 

Unfortunately,  it  was  not  an  isolated  case.  A  series  of 
incidents  have  recently  occurred  which  can  not  but  create 
the  impression  that  the  representatives  of  General  Huerta 
were  willing  to  go  out  of  their  way  to  show  disregard  for 
the  dignity  and  rights  of  this  Government,  and  felt  per 
fectly  safe  in  doing  what  they  pleased,  making  free  to 
show  in  many  ways  their  irritation  and  contempt. 

A  few  days  after  the  incident  at  Tampico  an  orderly  from 
the  U.  S.  S.  Minnesota  was  arrested  at  Vera  Cruz  while 
ashore  in  uniform  to  obtain  the  ship's  mail,  and  was  for  a 
time  thrown  into  jail.  An  official  dispatch  from  this  Gov 
ernment  to  its  embassy  at  Mexico  City  was  withheld  by 
the  authorities  of  the  telegraphic  service  until  peremptorily 
demanded  by  our  Charge  d'  Affaires  in  person. 
-"*-  So  far  as  I  can  learn,  such  wrong  and  annoyances  have 
been  suffered  to  occur  only  against  representatives  of  the 
United  States.  I  have  heard  of  no  complaints  from  other 

60 


Woodrow    Wilson 

governments  of  similar  treatment.  Subsequent  explana 
tions  and  formal  apologies  did  not  and  could  not  alter  the 
popular  impression,  which  it  is  possible  it  had  been  the 
object  of  the  Huertista  authorities  to  create,  that  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  was  being  singled  out,  and 
might  be  singled  out  with  impunity,  for  slights  and  affronts 
in  retaliation  for  its  refusal  to  recognize  the  pretensions 
of  General  Huerta  to  be  regarded  as  the  Constitutional  Pro 
visional  President  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico. 

The  manifest  danger  of  such  a  situation  was  that  such 
offenses  might  grow  from  bad  to  worse  until  something  hap 
pened  of  so  gross  and  intolerable  a  sort  as  to  lead  directly 
and  inevitably  to  armed  conflict.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
apologies  of  General  Huerta  and  his  representatives  should 
go  much  further,  that  they  should  be  such  as  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  whole  population  to  their  significance,  and 
such  as  to  impress  upon  General  Huerta  himself  the  neces 
sity  of  seeing  to  it  that  no  further  occasion  for  explanations 
and  professed  regrets  should  arise.  I,  therefore,  felt  it  my 
duty  to  sustain  Admiral  Mayo  in  the  whole  of  his  demand 
and  to  insist  that  the  flag  of  the  United  States  should  be 
saluted  in  such  a  way  as  to  indicate  a  new  spirit  and  atti 
tude  on  the  part  of  the  Huertistas. 

Such  a  salute  General  Huerta  has  refused,  and  I  have 
come  to  ask  your  approval  and  support  in  the  course  I  now 
purpose  to  pursue. 

This  Government  can,  I  earnestly  hope,  in  no  circum 
stances  be  forced  into  war  with  the  people  of  Mexico. 
Mexico  is  torn  by  civil  strife.  If  we  are  to  accept  the 
tests  of  its  own  Constitution,  it  has  no  government.  Gen 
eral  Huerta  has  set  his  power  up  in  the  City  of  Mexico, 
such  as  it  is,  without  right  and  by  methods  for  which  there 
can  be  no  justification.  Only  part  of  the  country  is  under 
his  control. 

If  armed  conflict  should  unhappily  come  as  a  result  of 
his  attitude  of  personal  resentment  toward  this  Government, 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

we  should  be  fighting  only  General  Huerta  and  those  who 
adhere  to  him  and  give  him  their  support,  and  our  object 
would  be  only  to  restore  to  the  people  of  the  distracted 
republic  the  opportunity  to  set  up  again  their  own  laws 
and  their  own  government. 

But  I  earnestly  hope  that  war  is  not  now  in  question.  I 
believe  that  I  speak  for  the  American  people  when  I  say 
that  we  do  not  desire  to  control  in  any  degree  the  affairs 
of  our  sister  republic.  Our  feeling  for  the  people  of  Mexico 
is  one  of  deep  and  genuine  friendship,  and  everything  that 
we  have  so  far  done  or  refrained  from  doing  has  proceeded 
from  our  desire  to  help  them,  not  to  hinder  or  embarrass 
them.  We  would  not  wish  even  to  exercise  the  good  offices 
of  friendship  without  their  welcome  and  consent. 

The  people  of  Mexico  are  entitled  to  settle  their  own  do 
mestic  affairs  in  their  own  way,  and  we  sincerely  desire  to 
respect  their  right.  The  present  situation  need  have  none 
of  the  grave  complications  of  interference  if  we  deal  with 
it  promptly,  firmly,  and  wisely. 

No  doubt  I  could  do  what  is  necessary  in  the  circum 
stances  to  enforce  respect  for  our  Government  without  re 
course  to  the  Congress,  and  yet  not  exceed  my  constitutional 
power  as  President;  but  I  do  not  wish  to  act  in  a  matter 
possibly  of  so  grave  consequence  except  in  close  conference 
and  co-operation  with  both  the  Senate  and  House.  I  there 
fore  come  to  ask  your  approval  that  I  should  use  the 
armed  forces  of  the  United  States  in  such  ways  and  to  such 
an  extent  as  may  be  necessary  to  obtain  from  General 
Huerta  and  his  adherents  the  fullest  recognition  of  the 
rights  and  dignity  of  the  United  States,  even  amid  the 
distressing  conditions  now  unhappily  obtaining  in 
Mexico. 

There  can  in  what  we  do  be  no  thought  of  aggression  or 
of  selfish  aggrandizement.  We  seek  to  maintain  the  dignity 
and  authority  of  the  United  States  only  because  we  wish 
always  to  keep  our  great  influence  unimpaired  for  the  uses 


Woodrow    Wilson 

of  liberty,  both  in  the  United  States  and  wherever  else  it 
may  be  employed  for  the  benefit  of  mankind. 

[The  important  event  that  had  led  up  to  this  incident  was  the 
continued  refusal  to  recognize  Huerta.  A  popular  election  had 
been  set  in  Mexico  for  October  26,  1913,  to  elect  a  Constitutional 
President.  On  October  10  Huerta  sent  a  strong  force  of  soldiers 
to  the  Parliament  House  in  Mexico  City  and  arrested  110  members 
of  the  lower  chamber,  making  himself  supreme  and  rendering  the 
election  farcical.  Congress  gave  President  Wilson  the  approval  for 
which  he  asked,  by  passing  a  joint  resolution  that  the  President 
was  justified  in  using  the  armed  forces  of  the  United  States  to 
enforce  demands  on  Huerta  for  unequivocal  amends  to  the  United 
States.  This  resolution  was  adopted  April  22  1914.] 

WILSON  ORDERS  DISSOLUTION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  RAILROAD 
MERGERS 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  As  a  result  of  sensational  disclosures 
in  New  England  relating  to  monopoly  of  transportation 
acquired  by  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Rail 
road  as  a  principal,  the  Federal  Government,  in  order  to 
save  the  interests  of  stock-holders  and  of  the  public,  pro 
posed  to  the  controlling  financiers  a  systematic  process  of 
correcting  the  objectionable  practices  and  of  dissolving  the 
unlawful  combinations.  After  long  negotiations  the  United 
States  Attorney-General,  J.  C.  McReynolds,  was  obliged 
to  inform  the  President  that  the  directors  of  the  N.  Y.,  N. 
H.  and  H.  R.  R.  had  failed  to  comply  with  the  terms  of 
settlement.  The  President  thereupon  gave  the  Attorney- 
General  the  following  written  instruction :] 

Their  final  decision  in  this  matter  causes  me  the  deepest 
surprise  and  regret.  Their  failure  upon  so  slight  a  pretext 
to  carry  out  an  agreement  deliberately  and  solemnly  entered 
into,  and  which  was  manifestly  in  the  common  interest,  is 
to  me  inexplicable  and  entirely  without  justification. 

You  have  been  kind  enough  to  keep  me  informed  of  every 
step  the  Department  took  in  this  matter  and  the  action  of 
the  Department  has,  throughout,  met  with  my  entire  ap- 

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Presidential  Messages  f  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

proval.      It  was  just,  reasonable  and  efficient.      It  should 
have  resulted  in  avoiding  what  must  now  be  done. 

In  the  circumstances  the  course  you  propose  is  the  only 
one  the  Government  can  pursue.  I  therefore  request  and 
direct  that  a  proceeding  in  equity  be  filed,  seeking  the  dis 
solution  of  unlawful  monopolization  of  transportation  in 
New  England  territory  now  sought  to  be  mantained  by  the 
New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad  Company, 
and  that  the  criminal  aspects  of  the  case  be  laid  before  a 
Grand  Jury. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  July  21,  1 


[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  suit  was  begun  October  13,  1915, 
and  ended  January  10,  1916,  in  the  acquittal  of  six  de 
fendants  and  a  disagreement  of  the  jury  as  to  the  guilt  or 
innocence  of  the  other  five.] 

WILSON'S  SPECIAL  MESSAGE  ON   PROVISIONS  FOR  ADDI 
TIONAL  REVENUE 

(Delivered   before   Congress  in   Joint   Session   September 
4,  1914.) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

I  come  to  you  to-day  to  discharge  a  duty  which  I  wish 
with  all  my  heart  I  might  have  been  spared;  but  it  is  a 
very  clear  duty,  and  therefore  I  perform  it  without  hesi 
tation  or  apology.  I  come  to  ask  very  earnestly  that  addi 
tional  revenue  be  provided  for  the  Government. 

During  the  month  of  August  there  was,  as  compared  with 
the  corresponding  month  of  last  year,  a  falling  off  of  $10,- 
629,538  in  the  revenues  collected  from  customs.  A  con 
tinuation  of  this  decrease  in  the  same  proportion  through 
out  the  current  fiscal  year  would  probably  mean  a  loss  of 
customs  revenues  of  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  millions.  I 
need  not  tell  vou  to  what  this  falling  off  is  due.  It  is  due, 


Woodrow    Wilson 

in  chief  part,  not  to  the  reductions  recently  made  in  the  cus 
toms  duties,  but  to  the  great  decrease  in  importations;  and 
that  is  due  to  the  extraordinary  extent  of  the  industrial  area 
affected  by  the  present  war  in  Europe.  Conditions  have 
arisen  which  no  man  foresaw;  they  affect  the  whole  world 
of  commerce  and  economic  production;  and  they  must  be 
faced  and  dealt  with. 

It  would  be  very  unwise  to  postpone  dealing  with  them. 
Delay  in  such  a  matter  and  in  the  particular  circumstances 
in  which  we  now  find  ourselves  as  a  nation  might  involve 
consequences  of  the  most  embarrassing  and  deplorable  sort, 
for  which  I,  for  one,  would  not  care  to  be  responsible.  It 
would  be  very  dangerous  in  the  present  circumstances  to 
create  a  moment's  doubt  as  to  the  strength  and  sufficiency 
of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  its  ability  to  assist, 
to  steady,  and  sustain  the  financial  operations  of  the  coun 
try's  business.  If  the  Treasury  is  known,  or  even  thought, 
to  be  weak,  where  will  be  our  peace  of  mind?  The  whole 
industrial  activity  of  the  country  would  be  chilled  and  de 
moralized.  Just  now  the  peculiarly  difficult  financial  prob 
lems  of  the  moment  are  being  successfully  dealt  with,  with 
great  self-possession  and  good  sense  and  very  sound  judg 
ment;  but  they  are  only  in  process  of  being  worked  out. 
If  the  process  of  solution  is  to  be  completed,  no  one  must 
be  given  reason  to  doubt  the  solidity  and  adequacy  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  Government  which  stands  behind  the  whole 
method  ly  which  our  difficulties  are  being  met  and  handled. 

The  Treasury  itself  could  get  along  for  a  considerable 
period,  no  doubt,  without  immediate  resort  to  new  sources 
of  taxation.  But  at  what  cost  to  the  business  of  the  com 
munity?  Approximately  $75,000,000,  a  large  part  of  the 
present  Treasury  balance,  is  now  on  deposit  with  national 
banks  distributed  throughout  the  country.  It  is  deposited, 
of  course,  on  call.  I  need  not  point  out  to  you  what  the 
probable  consequences  of  inconvenience  and  distress  and 
confusion  would  be  if  the  diminishing  income  of  the  Treas- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

ury  should  make  it  necessary  rapidly  to  withdraw  these  de 
posits.  And  yet  without  additional  revenue  that  plainly 
might  become  necessary,  and  the  time  when  it  became  neces 
sary  could  not  be  controlled  or  determined  by  the  con 
venience  of  the  business  of  the  country.  It  would  have  to 
be  determined  by  the  operations  and  necessities  of  the 
Treasury  itself.  Such  risks  are  not  necessary  and  ought 
not  to  be  run.  We  can  not  too  scrupulously  or  carefully 
safeguard  a  financial  situation  which  is  at  best,  while  war 
continues  in  Europe,  difficult  and  abnormal.  Hesitation  and 
delay  are  the  worst  forms  of  bad  policy  under  such  con 
ditions. 

And  we  ought  not  to  borrow.  We  ought  to  resort  to 
taxation,  however  we  may  regret  the  necessity  of  putting 
additional  temporary  burdens  on  our  people.  To  sell  bonds 
would  be  to  make  a  most  untimely  and  unjustifiable  demand 
on  the  money  market;  untimely,  because  this  is  manifestly 
not  the  time  to  withdraw  working  capital  from  other  uses 
to  pay  the  Government's  bills;  unjustifiable,  because  un 
necessary.  The  country  is  able  to  pay  any  just  and  reason 
able  taxes  without  distress.  And  to  every  other  form  of 
borrowing,  whether  for  long  periods  or  for  short,  there  is 
the  same  objection.  These  are  not  the  circumstances,  this 
is  at  this  particular  moment  and  in  this  particular  exigency 
not  the  market,  to  borrow  large  sums  of  money.  What  we 
are  seeking  is  to  ease  and  assist  every  financial  transaction, 
not  to  add  a  single  additional  embarrassment  to  the  situa 
tion.  The  people  of  this  country  are  both  intelligent  and 
profoundly  patriotic.  They  are  ready  to  meet  the  present 
conditions  in  the  right  way  and  to  support  the  Government 
with  generous  self-denial.  They  know  and  understand,  and 
will  be  intolerant  only  of  those  who  dodge  responsibility  or 
are  not  frank  with  them. 

The  occasion  is  not  of  our  own  making.  We  had  no  part 
in  making  it.  But  it  is  here.  It  affects  us  as  directly  and 
palpably  almost  as  if  we  were  participants  in  the  circum- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

stances  which  gave  rise  to  it.  We  must  accept  the  inevitable 
with  calm  judgment  and  unruffled  spirits,  like  men  ac 
customed  to  deal  with  the  unexpected,  habituated  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  masters  of  their  own  affairs  and  their 
own  fortunes.  We  shall  pay  the  bill,  though  we  did  not 
deliberately  incur  it. 

In  order  to  meet  every  demand  upon  the  Treasury  with 
out  delay  or  perad venture  and  in  order  to  keep  the  Treasury 
strong,  unquestionably  strong,  and  strong  throughout  the 
present  anxieties,  I  respectfully  urge  that  an  additional 
revenue  of  $100,000,000  be  raised  through  internal  taxes 
devised  in  your  wisdom  to  meet  the  emergency.  The  only 
suggestion  I  take  the  liberty  of  making  is  that  such  sources 
of  revenue  be  chosen  as  will  begin  to  yield  at  once  and  yield 
with  a  certain  and  constant  flow. 

I  can  not  close  without  expressing  the  confidence  with 
which  I  approach  a  Congress,  with  regard  to  this  or  any 
other  matter,  which  has  shown  so  untiring  a  devotion  to 
public  duty,  which  has  responded  to  the  needs  of  the  Na 
tion  throughout  a  long  season  despite  inevitable  fatigue  and 
personal  sacrifice,  and  so  large  a  proportion  of  whose  Mem 
bers  have  devoted  their  whole  time  and  energy  to  the  busi 
ness  of  the  country. 

WILSON'S  SECOND  ANNUAL  MESSAGE 

(Delivered   before    Congress    in    Joint    Session    December 
8,  1914.) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

The  session  upon  which  you  are  now  entering  will  be  the 
closing  session  of  the  Sixty-third  Congress,  a  Congress,  I 
venture  to  say,  which  will  long  be  remembered  for  the  great 
body  of  thoughtful  and  constructive  work  which  it  has  done, 
in  loyal  response  to  the  thought  and  needs  of  the  country. 
I  should  like  in  this  address  to  review  the  notable  record 
and  try  to  make  adequate  assessment  of  it;  but  no  doubt 

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we  stand  too  near  the  work  that  has  been  done  and  are  our 
selves  too  much  part  of  it  to  play  the  part  of  historians 
toward  it. 

Our  program  of  legislation  with  regard  to  the  regulation 
of  business  is  now  virtually  complete.  It  has  been  put 
forth,  as  we  intended,  as  a  whole,  and  leaves  no  conjecture 
as  to  what  is  to  follow.  The  road  at  last  lies  clear  and  firm 
before  business.  It  is  a  road  which  it  can  travel  without 
fear  or  embarrassment.  It  is  the  road  to  ungrudged,  un 
clouded  success.  In  it  every  honest  man,  every  man  who 
believes  that  the  public  interest  is  part  of  his  own  interest, 
may  walk  with  perfect  confidence. 

Moreover,  our  thoughts  are  now  more  of  the  future  than 
of  the  past.  While  we  have  worked  at  our  tasks  of  peace 
the  circumstances  of  the  whole  age  have  been  altered  by  war. 
What  we  have  done  for  our  own  land  and  our  own  people 
we  did  with  the  best  that  was  in  us,  whether  of  character 
or  of  intelligence,  with  sober  enthusiasm  and  a  confidence 
in  the  principles  upon  which  we  were  acting  which  sus 
tained  us  at  every  step  of  the  difficult  undertaking;  but  it  is 
done.  It  has  passed  from  our  hands.  It  is  now  an  estab 
lished  part  of  the  legislation  of  the  country.  Its  useful 
ness,  its  effects  will  disclose  themselves  in  experience.  What 
chiefly  strikes  us  now,  as  we  look  about  us  during  these 
closing  days  of  a  year  which  will  be  forever  memorable  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  is  that  we  face  new  tasks,  have 
been  facing  them  these  six  months,  must  face  them  in  the 
months  to  come, — face  them  without  partisan  feeling,  like 
men  who  have  forgotten  everything  but  a  common  duty  and 
the  fact  that  we  are  representatives  of  a  great  people 
whose  thought  is  not  of  us  but  of  what  America  owes  to 
herself  and  to  all  mankind  in  such  circumstances  as  these 
upon  which  we  look  amazed  and  anxious. 

War  has  interrupted  the  means  of  trade  not  only  but 
also  the  processes  of  production.  In  Europe  it  is  destroy 
ing  men  and  resources  wholesale  and  upon  a  scale  unpre- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

cedented  and  appalling.  There  is  reason  to  fear  that  the 
time  is  near,  if  it  be  not  already  at  hand,  when  several  of 
the  countries  of  Europe  will  find  it  difficult  to  do  for  their 
people  what  they  have  hitherto  been  always  easily  able  to 
do, — many  essential  and  fundamental  things.  At  any  rate, 
they  will  need  our  help  and  our  manifold  services  as  they 
have  never  needed  them  before;  and  we  should  be  ready, 
more  fit  and  ready  than  we  have  ever  been. 

It  is  of  equal  consequence  that  the  nations  whom  Europe 
has  usually  supplied  with  innumerable  articles  of  manu 
facture  and  commerce  of  which  they  are  in  constant  need 
and  without  which  their  economic  development  halts  and 
stands  still  can  now  get  only  a  small  part  of  what  they 
formerly  imported  and  eagerly  look  to  us  to  supply  their 
all  but  empty  markets.  This  is  particularly  true  of  our 
own  neighbors,  the  States,  great  and  small,  of  Central  and 
South  America.  Their  lines  of  trade  have  hitherto  run 
chiefly  athwart  the  seas,  not  to  our  ports  but  to  the  ports 
of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  older  continent  of  Europe.  I 
do  not  stop  to  inquire  why,  or  to  make  any  comment  on 
probable  causes.  What  interests  us  just  now  is  not  the 
explanation  but  the  fact,  and  our  duty  and  opportunity  in 
the  presence  of  it.  Here  are  markets  which  we  must  supply, 
and  we  must  find  the  means  of  action.  The  United  States, 
this  great  people  for  whom  we  speak  and  act,  should  be 
ready,  as  never  before,  to  serve  itself  and  to  serve  mankind ; 
ready  with  its  resources,  its  energies,  its  forces  of  produc 
tion,  and  its  means  of  distribution. 

It  is  a  very  practical  matter,  a  matter  of  ways  and  means. 
We  have  the  resources,  but  are  we  fully  ready  to  use  them  ? 
And,  if  we  can  make  ready  what  we  have,  have  we  the 
means  at  hand  to  distribute  it?  We  are  not  fully  ready; 
neither  have  we  the  means  of  distribution.  We  are  willing, 
but  we  are  not  fully  able.  We  have  the  wish  to  serve  and 
to  serve  greatly,  generously ;  but  we  are  not  prepared  as  we 
should  be.  We  are  not  ready  to  mobilize  our  resources  at 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

once.  We  are  not  prepared  to  use  them  immediately  and 
at  their  best,  without  delay  and  without  waste. 

To  speak  plainly,  we  have  grossly  erred  in  the  way  in 
which  we  have  stunted  and  hindered  the  development  of  our 
merchant  marine.  And  now,  when  we  need  ships,  we  have 
not  got  them.  We  have  year  after  year  debated,  without 
end  or  conclusion,  the  best  policy  to  pursue  with  regard  to 
the  use  of  the  ores  and  forests  and  water  powers  of  our 
national  domain  in  the  rich  States  of  the  West,  when  we 
should  have  acted;  and  they  are  still  locked  up.  The  key 
is  still  turned  upon  them,  the  door  shut  fast  at  which  thou 
sands  of  vigorous  men,  full  of  initiative,  knock  clamorously 
for  admittance.  The  water  power  of  our  navigable  streams 
outside  the  national  domain  also,  even  in  the  eastern  States, 
where  we  have  worked  and  planned  for  generations,  is  still 
not  used  as  it  might  be,  because  we  will  and  we  won't;  be 
cause  the  laws  we  have  made  do  not  intelligently  balance 
encouragement  against  restraint.  We  withhold  by  regula 
tion. 

I  have  come  to  ask  you  to  remedy  and  correct  these  mis 
takes  and  omissions,  even  at  this  short  session  of  a  Congress 
which  would  certainly  seem  to  have  done  all  the  work  that 
could  reasonably  be  expected  of  it.  The  time  and  the  cir 
cumstances  are  extraordinary,  and  so  must  our  efforts  be 
also. 

Fortunately,  two  great  measures,  finely  conceived,  the  one 
to  unlock,  with  proper  safeguards,  the  resources  of  the  na 
tional  domain,  the  other  to  encourage  the  use  of  the  navi 
gable  waters  outside  that  domain  for  the  generation  of 
power,  have  already  passed  the  House  of  Representatives 
and  are  ready  for  immediate  consideration  and  action  by 
the  Senate.  With  the  deepest  earnestness  I  urge  their 
prompt  passage.  In  them  both  we  turn  our  backs  upon 
hesitation  and  makeshift  and  formulate  a  genuine  policy  of 
use  and  conservation,  in  the  best  sense  of  those  words.  We 
owe  the  one  measure  not  only  to  the  people  of  that  great 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

western  country  for  whose  free  and  systematic  develop 
ment,  as  it  seems  to  me,  our  legislation  has  done  so  little, 
but  also  to  the  people  of  the  Nation  as  a  whole;  and  we  as 
clearly  owe  the  other  in  fulfillment  of  our  repeated  promises 
that  the  water  power  of  the  country  should  in  fact  as  well 
as  in  name  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  great  industries  which 
can  make  economical  and  profitable  use  of  it,  the  rights  of 
the  public  being  adequately  guarded  the  while,  and  monop 
oly  in  the  use  prevented.  To  have  begun  such  measures 
and  not  completed  them  would  indeed  mar  the  record  of 
this  great  Congress  very  seriously.  I  hope  and  confidently 
believe  that  they  will  be  completed. 

And  there  is  another  great  piece  of  legislation  which 
awaits  and  should  receive  the  sanction  of  the  Senate:  I 
mean  the  bill  which  gives  a  larger  measure  of  self-govern 
ment  to  the  people  of  the  Philippines.  How  better,  in  this 
time  of  anxious  questioning  and  perplexed  policy,  could 
we  show  our  confidence  in  the  principles  of  liberty,  as  the 
sources  as  well  as  the  expression  of  life,  how  better  could 
we  demonstrate  our  own  self-possession  and  steadfastness 
in  the  courses  of  justice  and  disinterestedness  than  by  thus 
going  calmly  forward  to  fulfill  our  promises  to  a  depend 
ent  people,  who  will  now  look  more  anxiously  than  ever  to 
see  whether  we  have  indeed  the  liberality,  the  unselfishness, 
the  courage,  the  faith  we  have  boasted  and  professed.  I 
can  not  believe  that  the  Senate  will  let  this  great  measure 
of  constructive  justice  await  the  action  of  another  Congress. 
Its  passage  would  nobly  crown  the  record  of  these  two 
years  of  memorable  labor. 

But  I  think  that  you  will  agree  with  me  that  this  does  not 
complete  the  toll  of  our  duty.  How  are  we  to  carry  our 
goods  to  the  empty  markets  of  which  I  have  spoken  if  we 
have  not  the  ships  ?  How  are  we  to  build  up  a  great  trade 
if  we  have  not  the  certain  and  constant  means  of  trans 
portation  upon  which  all  profitable  and  useful  commerce 
depends?  And  how  are  we  to  get  the  ships  if  we  wait 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

for  the  trade  to  develop  without  them  ?  To  correct  the 
many  mistakes  by  which  we  have  discouraged  and  all  but 
destroyed  the  merchant  marine  of  the  country,  to  retrace 
the  steps  by  which  we  have,  it  seems  almost  deliberately, 
withdrawn  our  flag  from  the  seas,  except  where,  here  and 
there,  a  ship  of  war  is  bidden  carry  it  or  some  wandering 
yacht  displays  it,  would  take  a  long  time  and  involve  many 
detailed  items  of  legislation,  and  the  trade  which  we  ought 
immediately  to  handle  would  disappear  or  find  other  chan 
nels  while  we  debated  the  items. 

The  case  is  not  unlike  that  which  confronted  us  when 
our  own  continent  was  to  be  opened  up  to  settlement  and 
industry,  and  we  needed  long  lines  of  railway,  extended 
means  of  transportation  prepared  beforehand,  if  develop 
ment  was  not  to  lag  intolerably  and  wait  interminably.  We 
lavishly  subsidized  the  building  of  trancontinental  rail 
roads.  We  look  back  upon  that  with  regret  now,  because 
the  subsidies  led  to  many  scandals  of  which  we  are  ashamed ; 
but  we  know  that  the  railroads  had  to  be  built,  and  if  we 
had  it  to  do  over  again  we  should  of  course  build  them,  but 
in  another  way.  Therefore  I  propose  another  way  of  pro 
viding  the  means  of  transportation,  which  must  precede, 
not  tardily  follow,  the  development  of  our  trade  with  our 
neighbor  states  of  America.  It  may  seem  a  reversal  of  the 
natural  order  of  things,  but  it  is  true,  that  the  routes  of 
trade  must  be  acually  opened — by  many  ships  and  regular 
sailings  and  moderate  charges — before  streams  of  merchan 
dise  will  flow  freely  and  profitably  through  them. 

Hence  the  pending  shipping  bill,  discussed  at  the  last 
session  but  as  yet  passed  by  neither  House.  In  my  judg 
ment  such  legislation  is  imperatively  needed  and  can  not 
wisely  be  postponed.  The  Government  must  open  these 
gates  of  trade,  and  open  them  wide;  open  them  before  it 
is  altogether  profitable  to  open  them,  or  altogether  reason 
able  to  ask  private  capital  to  open  them  at  a  venture.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  the  Government  monopolizing  the  field. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

It  should  take  action  to  make  it  certain  that  transportation 
at  reasonable  rates  will  be  promptly  provided,  even  where 
the  carriage  is  not  at  first  profitable;  and  then,  when  the 
carriage  has  become  sufficiently  profitable  to  attract  and  en 
gage  private  capital,  and  engage  it  in  abundance,  the  Gov 
ernment  ought  to  withdraw.  I  very  earnestly  hope  that 
the  Congress  will  be  of  this  opinion,  and  that  both  Houses 
will  adopt  this  exceedingly  important  bill. 

The  great  subject  of  rural  credits  still  remains  to  be 
dealt  with,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  deep  regret  that  the  diffi 
culties  of  the  subject  have  seemed  to  render  it  impossible 
to  complete  a  bill  for  passage  at  this  session.  But  it  can 
not  be  perfected  yet,  and  therefore  there  are  no  other  con 
structive  measures  the  necessity  for  which  I  will  at  this 
time  call  your  attention  to;  but  I  would  be  negligent  of  a 
very  manifest  duty  were  I  not  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
Senate  to  the  fact  that  the  proposed  convention  for  safety 
at  sea  awaits  its  confirmation  and  that  the  limit  fixed  in 
the  convention  itself  for  its  acceptance  is  the  last  day  of 
the  present  month.  The  conference  in  which  this  conven 
tion  originated  was  called  by  the  United  States;  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  United  States  played  a  very  influential 
part  indeed  in  framing  the  provisions  of  the  proposed  con 
vention;  and  those  provisions  are  in  themselves  for  the 
most  part  admirable.  It  would  hardly  be  consistent  with 
the  part  we  have  played  in  the  whole  matter  to  let  it  drop 
and  go  by  the  board  as  if  forgotten  and  neglected.  It  was 
ratified  in  May  last  by  the  German  Government  and  in  Au 
gust  by  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain.  It  marks  a  most 
hopeful  and  decided  advance  in  international  civilization. 
We  should  show  our  earnest  good  faith  in  a  great  matter 
by  adding  our  own  acceptance  of  it. 

There  is  another  matter  of  which  I  must  make  special 
mention,  if  I  am  to  discharge  my  conscience,  lest  it  should 
escape  your  attention.  It  may  seem  a  very  small  thing. 
It  affects  only  a  single  item  of  appropriation.  But  many 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papen 

human  lives  and  many  great  enterprises  hang  upon  it.  It 
is  the  matter  of  making  adequate  provision  for  the  survey 
and  charting  of  our  coasts.  It  is  immediately  pressing 
and  exigent  in  connection  with  the  immense  coast  line  of 
Alaska,  a  coast  line  greater  than  that  of  the  United  States 
themselves,  though  it  is  also  very  important  indeed  with 
.regard  to  the  older  coasts  of  the  continent.  We  can  not 
use  our  great  Alaskan  domain,  ships  will  not  ply  thither, 
if  those  coasts  and  their  many  hidden  dangers  are  not  thor 
oughly  surveyed  and  charted.  The  work  is  incomplete  at 
almost  every  point.  Ships  and  lives  have  been  lost  in 
threading  what  were  supposed  to  be  well-known  main  chan 
nels.  We  have  not  provided  adequate  vessels  or  adequate 
machinery  for  the  survey  and  charting.  We  have  used 
old  vessels  that  were  not  big  enough  or  strong  enough  and 
which  were  so  nearly  unseaworthy  that  our  inspectors 
would  not  have  allowed  private  owners  to  send  them  to  sea. 
This  is  a  matter  which,  as  I  have  said,  seems  small,  but  is 
in  reality  very  great.  Its  importance  has  only^to  be  looked 
into  to  be  appreciated. 

Before  I  close  may  I  say  a  few  words  upon  two  topics, 
much  discussed  out  of  doors,  upon  which  it  is  highly  impor 
tant  that  our  judgments  should  be  clear,  definite  and  stead 
fast? 

One  of  these  is  economy  in  government  expenditures. 
The  duty  of  economy  is  not  debatable.  It  is  manifest  and 
imperative.  In  the  appropriations  we  pass  we  are  spend 
ing  the  money  of  the  great  people  whose  servants  we  are, — 
not  our  own.  We  are  trustees  and  responsible  stewards  in 
the  spending.  The  only  thing  debatable  and  upon  which 
we  should  be  careful  to  make  our  thought  and  purpose 
clear  is  the  kind  of  economy  demanded  of  us.  I  assert 
with  the  greatest  confidence  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  are  not  jealous  of  the  amount  their  Government 
costs  if  they  are  sure  that  they  get  what  they  need  and 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

desire  for  the  outlay,  that  the  money  is  being  spent  for 
objects  of  which  they  approve,  and  that  it  is  being  applied 
with  good  business  sense  and  management. 

Governments  grow,  piecemeal,  both  in  their  tasks  and  in 
the  means  by  which  those  tasks  are  to  be  performed,  and 
very  few  Governments  are  organized,  I  venture  to  say,  as 
wise  and  experienced  business  men  would  organize  them 
if  they  had  a  clean  sheet  of  paper  to  write  upon.  Cer 
tainly  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  not.  I  think 
that  it  is  generally  agreed  that  there  should  be  a  systematic 
reorganization  and  reassembling  of  its  parts  so  as  to  secure 
greater  efficiency  and  effect  considerable  savings  in  expense. 
But  the  amount  of  money  saved  in  that  way  would,  I  be 
lieve,  though  no  doubt  considerable  in  itself,  running,  it 
may  be,  into  the  millions,  be  relatively  small, — small,  I 
mean,  in  proportion  to  the  total  necessary  outlays  of  the 
Government.  It  would  be  thoroughly  worth  effecting,  as 
every  saving  would,  great  or  small.  Our  duty  is  not  altered 
by  the  scale  of  the  saving.  But  my  point  is  that  the  people 
of  the  United  States  do  not  wish  to  curtail  the  activities  of 
this  Government;  they  wish,  rather,  to  enlarge  them;  and 
with  every  enlargement,  with  the  mere  growth,  indeed,  of 
the  country  itself,  there  must  come,  of  course,  the  inevitable 
increase  of  expense.  The  sort  of  economy  we  ought  to 
practice  may  be  effected,  and  ought  to  be  effected,  by  a 
careful  study  and  assessment  of  the  tasks  to  be  performed ; 
and  the  money  spent  ought  to  be  made  to  yield  the  best 
possible  returns  in  efficiency  and  achievement.  And,  like 
good  stewards,  we  should  so  account  for  every  dollar  of 
our  appropriations  as  to  make  it  perfectly  evident  what  it 
was  spent  for  and  in  what  way  it  was  spent. 

It  is  not  expenditure  but  extravagance  that  we  should 
fear  being  criticized  for ;  not  paying  for  the  legitimate 
enterprises  and  undertakings  of  a  great  Government  whose 
people  command  what  it  should  do,  but  adding  what  will 
benefit  only  a  few  or  pouring  money  out  for  what  need  not 

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have  been  undertaken  at  all  or  might  have  beer  postponed 
or  better  and  more  economically  conceived  and  carried  out. 
The  Nation  is  not  niggardly;  it  is  very  generous.  It  will 
chide  as  only  if  we  forget  for  whom  we  pay  money  out  and 
whose  money  it  is  we  pay.  These  are  large  and  general 
standards,  but  they  are  not  very  difficult  of  application  to 
particular  cases. 

The  other  topic  I  shall  take  leave  to  mention  goes  deeper 
into  the  principles  of  our  national  life  and  policy.  It  is 
the  subject  of  national  defense. 

It  can  not  be  discussed  without  first  answering  some  very 
searching  questions.  It  is  said  in  some  quarters  that  we 
are  not  prepared  for  war.  What  is  meant  by  being  pre 
pared?  Is  it  meant  that  we  are  not  ready  upon  brief  notice 
to  put  a  nation  in  the  field,  a  nation  of  men  trained  to  arms  ? 
Of  course  we  are  not  ready  to  do  that;  and  we  shall  never 
be  in  time  of  peace  so  long  as  we  retain  our  present  political 
principles  and  institutions.  And  what  is  it  that  it  is  sug 
gested  we  should  be  prepared  to  do?  To  defend  ourselves 
against  attack?  We  have  always  found  means  to  do  that, 
and  shall  find  them  whenever  it  is  necessary  without  calling 
our  people  away  from  their  necessary  tasks  to  render  com 
pulsory  military  service  in  times  of  peace. 

Allow  me  to  speak  with  great  plainness  and  directness 
upon  this  great  matter  and  to  avow  my  convictions  with 
deep  earnestness.  I  have  tried  to  know  what  America  is, 
what  her  people  think,  what  they  are,  what  they  most  cher 
ish  and  hold  dear.  I  hope  that  some  of  their  finer  passions 
are  in  my  own  heart, — some  of  the  great  conceptions  and 
desires  which  gave  birth  to  this  Government  and  which 
have  made  the  voice  of  this  people  a  voice  of.  peace  and 
hope  and  liberty  among  the  peoples  of  the  world,  and  that, 
speaking  my  own  thoughts,  I  shall,  at  least  in  part,  speak 
theirs  also,  however  faintly  and  inadequately,  upon  this  vi 
tal  matter. 

We  are  at  peace  with  all  the  world.     No  one  who  speaks 

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counsel  based  on  fact  or  drawn  from  a  just  and  candid 
interpretation  of  realities  can  say  that  there  is  reason  to 
fear  that  from  any  quarter  our  independence  or  the  integ 
rity  of  our  territory  is  threatened.  Dread  of  the  power 
of  any  other  nation  we  are  incapable  of.  We  are  not  jeal 
ous  of  rivalry  in  the  fields  of  commerce  or  of  any  other 
peaceful  achievement.  We  mean  to  live  our  own  lives  as 
we  will;  but  we  mean  also  to  let  live.  We  are,  indeed,,  a 
true  friend  to  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  because  we 
threaten  none,  covet  the  possessions  of  none,  desire  the 
overthrow  of  none.  Our  friendship  can  be  accepted  and 
is  accepted  without  reservation,  because  it  is  offered  in  a 
spirit  and  for  a  purpose  which  no  one  need  ever  question  or 
suspect.  Therein  lies  our  greatness.  We  are  the  cham 
pions  of  peace  and  of  concord.  And  we  should  be  very 
jealous  of  this  distinction  which  we  have  sought  to  earn. 
Just  now  we  should  be  particularly  jealous  of  it,  because 
it  is  our  dearest  present  hope  that  this  character  and  repu 
tation  may  presently,  in  God's  providence,  bring  us  an  op 
portunity  such  as  has  seldom  been  vouchsafed  any  nation, 
the  opportunity  to  counsel  and  obtain  peace  in  the  world 
and  reconciliation  and  a  healing  settlement  of  many  a 
matter  that  has  cooled  and  interrupted  the  friendship  of 
nations.  This  is  the  time  above  all  others  when  we  should 
wish  and  resolve  to  keep  our  strength  by  self-possession, 
our  influence  by  preserving  our  ancient  principles  of  action. 
From  the  first  we  have  had  a  clear  and  settled  policy 
with  regard  to  military  establishments.  We  never  have 
had,  and  while  we  retain  our  present  principles  and  ideals 
we  never  shall  have,  a  large  standing  army.  If  asked, 
Are  you  ready  to  defend  yourselves?  we  reply,  Most  as 
suredly,  to  the  utmost;  and  yet  we  shall  not  turn  America 
into  a  military  camp.  We  will  not  ask  our  young  men  to 
spend  the  best  years  of  their  lives  making  soldiers  of  them 
selves.  There  is  another  sort  of  energy  in  us.  It  will 
know  how  to  declare  itself  and  make  itself  effective  should 

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occasion  arise.  And  especially  when  half  the  world  is  on 
fire  we  shall  be  careful  to  make  our  moral  insurance  against 
the  spread  of  the  conflagration  very  definite  and  certain 
and  adequate  indeed. 

Let  us  remind  ourselves,  therefore,  of  the  only  thing  we 
can  do  or  will  do.  We  must  depend  in  every  time  of  na 
tional  peril,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  not  upon  a  stand 
ing  army,  nor  yet  upon  a  reserve  army,  but  upon  a  citi 
zenry  trained  and  accustomed  to  arms.  It  will  be  right 
enough,  right  American  policy,  based  upon  our  accustomed 
principles  and  practices,  to  provide  a  system  by  which 
every  citizen  who  will  volunteer  for  the  training  may  be 
made  familiar  with  the  use  of  modern  arms,  the  rudiments 
of  drill  and  maneuver,  and  the  maintenance  and  sanitation 
of  camps.  We  should  encourage  such  training  and  make 
it  a  means  of  discipline  which  our  young  men  will  learn 
to  value.  It  is  right  that  we  should  provide  it  not  only, 
but  that  we  should  make  it  as  attractive  as  possible,  and 
so  induce  our  young  men  to  undergo  it  at  such  times  as  they 
can  command  a  little  freedom  and  can  seek  the  physical 
development  they  need,  for  mere  health's  sake,  if  for  noth 
ing  more.  Every  means  by  which  such  things  can  be  stimu 
lated  is  legitimate,  and  such  a  method  smacks  of  true 
American  ideas.  It  is  right,  too,  that  the  National  Guard 
of  the  States  should  be  developed  and  strengthened  by 
every  means  which  is  not  inconsistent  with  our  obligations 
to  our  own  people  or  with  the  established  policy  of  our 
Government.  And  this,  also,  not  because  the  time  or  occa 
sion  specially  calls  for  such  measures,  but  because  it  should 
be  our  constant  policy  to  make  these  provisions  for  our  na 
tional  peace  and  safety. 

More  than  this  carries  with  it  a  reversal  of  the  whole 
history  and  character  of  our  polity.  More  than  this,  pro 
posed  at  this  time,  permit  me  to  say,  would  mean  merely 
that  we  had  lost  our  self-possession,  that  we  had  been 
thrown  off  our  balance  by  a  war  with  which  we  have  noth- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

ing  to  do,  whose  causts  can  not  touch  us,  whose  very  exist* 
ence  affords  us  opportunities  of  friendship  and  disinterested 
service  which  should  make  us  ashamed  of  any  thought  of 
hostility  or  fearful  preparation  for  trouble.  This  is  as 
suredly  the  opportunity  for  which  a  people  and  a  govern 
ment  like  ours  were  raised  up,  the  opportunity  not  only 
to  speak  but  actually  to  embody  and  exemplify  the  counsels 
of  peace  and  amity  and  the  lasting  concord  which  is  based 
on  justice  and  fair  and  generous  dealing. 

A  powerful  navy  we  have  always  regarded  as  our  proper 
and  natural  means  of  defense;  and  it  has  always  been  of 
defense  that  we  have  thought,  never  of  aggression  or  of 
conquest.  But  who  shall  tell  us  now  what  sort  of  navy  to 
build?  We  shall  take  leave  to  be  strong  upon  the  seas,  in 
the  future  as  in  the  past;  and  there  will  be  no  thought  of 
offense  or  of  provocation  in  that.  Our  ships  are  our  natural 
bulwarks.  When  will  the  expert  tell  us  just  what  kind  we 
should  construct — and  when  will  they  be  right  for  ten  years 
together,  if  the  relative  efficiency  of  craft  of  different  kinds 
and  uses  continues  to  change  as  we  have  seen  it  change 
under  our  very  eyes  in  these  last  few  months  ? 

But  I  turn  away  from  the  subj  ect.  It  is  not  new.  There 
is  no  new  need  to  discuss  it.  We  shall  not  alter  our  atti 
tude  toward  it  because  some  amongst  us  are  nervous  and 
excited.  We  shall  easily  and  sensibly  agree  upon  a  policy 
of  defense.  The  question  has  not  changed  its  aspects  be 
cause  the  times  are  not  normal.  Our  policy  will  not  be 
for  an  occasion.  It  will  be  conceived  as  a  permanent  and 
settled  thing,  which  we  will  pursue  at  all  seasons,  without 
haste  and  after  a  fashion  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
peace  of  the  world,  the  abiding  friendship  of  states,  and 
the  unhampered  freedom  of  all  with  whom  we  deal.  Let 
there  be  no  misconception.  The  country  has  been  mis 
informed.  We  have  not  been  negligent  of  national  defense. 
We  are  not  unmindful  of  the  great  responsibility  resting 
upon  us.  We  shall  learn  and  profit  by  the  lesson  of  every 

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experience  and  every  new  circumstance ;  and  what  is  needed 
will  be  adequately  done. 

I  close,  as  I  began,  by  reminding  you  of  the  great  tasks 
and  duties  of  peace  which  challenge  our  best  powers  and 
invite  us  to  build  what  will  last,  the  tasks  to  which  we  can 
address  ourselves  now  and  at  all  times  with  free-hearted 
zest  and  with  all  the  finest  gifts  of  constructive  wisdom 
we  possess.  To  develop  our  life  and  our  resources ;  to  sup 
ply  our  own  people,  and  the  people  of  the  world  as  their 
need  arises,  from  the  abundant  plenty  of  our  fields  and 
our  marts  of  trade;  to  enrich  the  commerce  of  our  own 
States  and  of  the  world  with  the  products  of  our  mines, 
our  farms,  and  our  factories,  with  the  creations  of  our 
thought  and  the  fruits  of  our  character, — this  is  what  will 
hold  our  attention  and  our  enthusiasm  steadily,  now  and  in 
the  years  to  come,  as  we  strive  to  show  in  our  life  as  a 
nation  what  liberty  and  the  inspirations  of  an  emancipated 
spirit  may  do  for  men  and  for  societies,  for  individuals,  for 
states,  and  for  mankind. 


WILSON'S  JACKSON  DAY  ADDRESS  AT  INDIANAPOLIS, 
JANUARY  8,  1915 

[In  which  he  praises  the  Democratic  party  and  ridicules  every 
thing  Republican.  Here  we  find  President  Wilson  in  his  lightest 
vein.  In  this  addresst,  also,  he  declared,  regarding  Mexican  fac 
tions,  that  "so  far  as  my  influence  goes  while  I  am  President 
nobody  shall  interfere  with  them."] 

Governor  Ralston,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

You  have  given  me  a  most  royal  welcome,  for  which  I 
thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart.  It  is  rather  lonely 
living  in  Washington.  I  have  been  confined  for  two  years 
at  hard  labor,  and  even  now  I  feel  that  I  am  simply  out 
on  parole.  You  notice  that  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
members  of  the  United  States  Senate  is  here  to  see  that  I 
go  back.  And  yet,  with  sincere  apologies  to  the  Senate  and 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

House  of  Representatives,  I  want  to  say  that  I  draw  more 
inspiration  from  you  than  I  do  from  them.  They,  like 
myself,  are  only  servants  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Our  sinews  consist  in  your  sympathy  and  support,  and  our 
renewal  comes  from  contact  with  you  and  with  the  strong 
movements  of  public  opinion  in  the  country.  .  .  . 

But  I  have  come  here  on  Jackson  Day.  If  there  are 
Republicans  present,  I  hope  they  will  feel  the  compelling 
influences  of  such  a  day.  There  was  nothing  mild  about 
Andrew  Jackson;  that  is  the  reason  I  spoke  of  the  "com 
pelling  influences"  of  the  day.  Andrew  Jackson  was  a 
forthright  man  who  believed  everything  he  did  believe  in 
fighting  earnest.  And  really,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  pub 
lic  life  that  is  the  only  sort  of  man  worth  thinking  about 
for  a  moment.  If  I  was  not  ready  to  fight  for  everything  I 
believe  in,  I  would  think  it  my  duty  to  go  back  and  take  a 
back  seat.  I  like,  therefore,  to  breathe  the  air  of  Jackson 
Day.  I  like  to  be  reminded  of  the  old  militant  hosts  of 
Democracy  which  I  believe  have  come  to  life  again  in  our 
time.  The  United  States  had  almost  forgotten  that  it  must 
keep  its  fighting  ardor  in  behalf  of  mankind  when  Andrew 
Jackson  became  President;  and  you  will  notice  that  when 
ever  the  United  States  forgets  its  ardor  for  mankind  it  is 
necessary  that  a  Democrat  should  be  elected  President. 

The  trouble  with  the  Republican  party  is  that  it  has  not 
had  a  new  idea  for  thirty  years.  I  am  not  speaking  as  a 
politician ;  I  am  speaking  as  an  historian.  I  have  looked  for 
new  ideas  in  the  records  and  I  have  not  found  any  pro 
ceeding  from  the  Republican  ranks.  They  have  had  leaders 
from  time  to  time  who  suggested  new  ideas,  but  they  never 
did  anything  to  carry  them  out.  I  suppose  there  was  no 
harm  in  their  talking,  provided  they  could  not  do  anything. 
Therefore,  when  it  was  necessary  to  say  that  we  had  talked 
about  things  long  enough  which  it  was  necessary  to  do,  and 
the  time  had  come  to  do  them,  it  was  indispensable  that  a 
Democrat  should  be  elected  President. 

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I  would  not  speak  with  disrespect  of  the  Republican 
party.  I  always  speak  with  great  respect  of  the  past.  The 
past  was  necessary  to  the  present,  and  was  a  sure  pre 
diction  of  the  future.  The  Republican  party  is  still  a  covert 
and  refuge  for  those  who  are  afraid,  for  those  who  want 
to  consult  their  grandfathers  about  everything.  You  will 
notice  that  most  of  the  advice  taken  by  the  Republican 
party  is  taken  from  gentlemen  old  enough  to  be  grand 
fathers,  and  that  when  they  claim  that  a  reaction  has  taken 
place,  they  react  to  the  re-election  of  the  oldest  members 
of  their  party.  They  will  not  trust  the  youngsters.  They 
are  afraid  the  youngsters  may  have  something  up  their 
sleeve.  .  *.  . 

My  friends,  what  I  particularly  want  you  to  observe  is 
this,  that  politics  in  this  country  does  not  depend  any  longer 
upon  the  regular  members  of  either  party.  There  are  not 
enough  regular  Republicans  in  this  country  to  take  and 
hold  national  power;  and  I  must  immediately  add  there 
are  not  enough  regular  Democrats  in  this  country  to  do  it, 
either.  This  country  is  guided  and  it$  policy  is  determined 
by  the  independent  voter ;  and  I  have  £ome  to  ask  you  how 
we  can  best  prove  to  the  independent  "voter  that  the  instru 
ment  he  needs  is  the  Democratic  party,  and  that  it  would 
be  hopeless  for  him  to  attempt  to  use  the  Republican  party. 
I  do  not  have  to  prove  it ;  I  admit  it. 

What  seems  to  me  perfectly  evident  is  this:  That  if  you 
made  a  rough  reckoning,  you  would  have  to  admit  that  only 
about  one-third  of  the  Republican  party  is  progressive ;  and 
you  would  also  have  to  admit  that  about  two-thirds  of  the 
Democratic  party  is  progressive.  Therefore,  the  independ 
ent  progressive  voter  finds  a  great  deal  more  company  in 
the  Democratic  ranks  than  in  the  Republican  ranks.  .  .  . 

What  I  want  to  point  out  to  you — and  I  believe  that  this 
is  what  the  whole  country  is  beginning  to  perceive — is  this, 
that  there  is  a  larger  body  of  men  in  the  regular  ranks  of 
the  Democratic  party  who  believe  in  the  progressive  policies 


Woodrow    Wilson 

of  our  day  and  m«an  to  see  them  carried  forward  and  per 
petuated  than  there  is  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party. 
How  can  it  be  otherwise,  gentlemen?  The  Democratic 
party,  and  only  the  Denlocratic  party,  has  carried  out  the 
policies  which  the  progressive  people  of  this  country  have 
desired.  There  is  not  a  single  great  act  of  this  present 
great  Congress  which  has  not  been  carried  out  in  obedience 
to  the  public  opinion  of  America;  and  the  public  opinion  of 
America  is  not  going  to  permit  any  body  of  men  to  go  back 
ward  with  regard  to  these  great  matters. 

Let  me  instance  a  single  thing:  I  want  to  ask  the  busi 
ness  men  here  present  if  this  is  not  the  first  January  in 
their  recollection  that  did  not  bring  a  money  stringency 
for  the  time  being,  because  of  the  necessity  of  paying  out 
great  sums  of  money  by  way  of  dividends  and  the  other 
settlements  which  come  at  the  first  of  the  year?  I  have 
asked  the  bankers  if  that  happened  this  year,  and  they 
say;  "No;  it  did  not  happen;  it  could  not  happen  under 
the  Federal  Reserve  Act."  We  have  emancipated  the 
credits  of  this  country;  and  is  there  anybody  here  who 
will  doubt  that  the  other  policies  that  have  given  guaranty 
to  this  country  that  there  will  be  free  competition  are  poli 
cies  which  this  country  will  never  allow  to  be  reversed? 
I  have  taken  a  long  time,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  select 
the  Federal  Trade  Commission,  because  I  wanted  to  choose 
men  and  be  sure  that  I  had  chosen  men  who  would  be 
really  serviceable  to  the  business  men  of  this  country,  great 
as  well  as  small,  the  rank  and  the  file.  These  things  have 
been  done  and  will  never  be  undone.  They  were  talked 
about  and  talked  about  with  futility  until  a  Democratic 
Congress  attempted  and  achieved  them. 

But  the  Democratic  party  is  not  to  suppose  that  it  is 
done  with  the  business.  The  Democratic  party  is  still  on 
trial.  The  Democratic  party  still  has  to  prove  to  the  in 
dependent  voters  of  the  country  not  only  that  it  believes 
in  these  things,  but  that  it  will  continue  to  work  along  these 

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lines  and  that  it  will  not  allow  any  enemy  of  these  things 
to  break  its  ranks.  This  country  is  not  going  to  use  any 
party  that  can  not  do  continuous  and  consistent  teamwork. 
If  any  group  of  men  should  dare  to  break  the  solidarity  of 
the  Democratic  team  for  any  purpose  or  from  any  motive, 
theirs  will  be  a  most  unenviable  notoriety  and  a  responsi 
bility  which  will  bring  deep  bitterness  to  them.  The  only 
party  that  is  serviceable  to  a  nation  is  a  party  that  can 
hold  absolutely  together  and  march  with  the  discipline  and 
with  the  zest  of  a  conquering  host. 

I  am  not  saying  these  things  because  I  doubt  that  the 
Democratic  party  will  be  able  to  do  this,  but  because  I  be 
lieve  that  as  leader  for  the  time  being  of  that  party  I  can 
promise  the  country  that  it  will  do  these  things.  I  know  my 
colleagues  at  Washington ;  I  know  their  spirit  and  their  pur 
pose  ;  and  I  know  that  they  have  the  same  emotion,  the  same 
high  emotion  of  public  service,  that  I  hope  I  have. 

I  want  at  this  juncture  to  pay  my  tribute  of  respect  and 
of  affectionate  admiration  for  the  two  great  Democratic 
Senators  from  the  State  of  Indiana.  I  have  never  had  to 
lie  awake  nights  wondering  what  they  were  going  to  do. 
And  the  country  is  not  going  to  trouble  itself,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  to  lie  awake  nights  and  wonder  what  men  are 
going  to  do.  If  they  have  to  do  that,  they  will  choose  other 
men.  Teamwork  all  the  time  is  what  they  are  going  to  de 
mand  of  us,  and  that  is  our  individual  as  well  as  our  col 
lective  responsibility.  That  is  what  Jackson  stands  for. 
If  a  man  will  not  play  with  the  team,  then  he  does  not 
belong  to  the  team.  You  see,  I  have  spent  a  large  part  of 
my  life  in  college  and  I  know  what  a  team  means  when  I 
see  it;  and  I  know  what  the  captain  of  a  team  must  have 
if  he  is  going  to  win.  So  it  is  no  idle  figure  of  speech 
with  me. 

Now,  what  is  their  duty?  You  say,  "Hasn't  this  Con 
gress  carried  out  a  great  program?"  Yes,  it  has  carried 
out  a  great  program.  It  has  had  the  most  remarkable 


Woodrow    Wilson 

record  that  any  Congress  since  the  Civil  War  has  had ;  and 
I  say  since  the  Civil  War  because  I  have  not  had  time  to 
think  about  those  before  the  Civil  War.  But  we  are  living 
at  an  extraordinary  moment.  The  world  has  never  been 
in  the  condition  that  it  is  in  now,  my  friends.  Half  the 
world  is  on  fire.  Only  America  among  the  great  powers 
of  the  world  is  free  to  govern  her  own  life;  and  all  the 
world  is  looking  to  America  to  serve  its  economic  need.  And 
while  this  is  happening  what  is  going  on? 

Do  you  know,,  gentlemen,  that  the  ocean  freight  rates 
have  gone  up  in  some  instances  to  ten  times  their  ordinary 
figure?  and  that  the  farmers  of  the  United  States,  those 
who  raise  grain  and  those  who  raise  cotton — these  things 
that  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  world  as  well  as  to 
ourselves — can  not  get  their  due  profit  out  of  the  great 
prices  that  they  are  willing  to  pay  for  these  things  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sea,  because  practically  the  whole  profit 
is  eaten  up  by  the  extortionate  charges  for  ocean  carriage? 
In  the  midst  of  this  the  Democrats  propose  a  temporary 
measure  of  relief  in  a  shipping  bill.  The  merchants  and 
the  farmers  of  this  country  must  have  ships  to  carry  their 
goods.  Just  at  the  present  moment  there  is  no  other  way 
of  getting  them  through  the  instrumentality  that  is  sug 
gested  in  the  shipping  bill.  I  hear  it  said  in  Washington 
on  all  hands  that  the  Republicans  in  the  United  States  Sen 
ate  mean  to  talk  enough  to  make  the  passage  of  that  bill  im 
possible.  These  self-styled  friends  of  business,  these  men 
who  say  the  Democratic  party  does  not  know  what  to  do 
for  business,  are  saying  that  the  Democrats  shall  do  noth 
ing  for  business.  I  challenge  them  to  show  their  right  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  release  of  American  products  to  the 
rest  of  the  world!  Who  commissioned  them — a  minority, 
a  lessening  minority?  (For  they  will  be  in  a  greater 
minority  in  the  next  Senate  than  in  this.)  You  know  it  is 
the  peculiarity  of  that  great  body  that  it  has  rules  of  pro 
cedure  which  make  it  possible  for  a  minority  to  defy  the 

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Nation;  and  these  gentlemen  are  now  seeking  to  defy  tht 
Nation  and  prevent  the  release  of  American  products  to 
the  suffering  world  which  needs  them  more  than  it  ever 
needed  them  before.  Their  credentials  as  friends  of  busi 
ness  and  friends  of  America  will  be  badly  discredited  if 
they  succeed.  If  I  were  speaking  from  a  selfish,  partisan 
point  of  view,  I  could  wish  nothing  better  than  that  they 
should  show  their  true  colors  as  partisans  and  succeed.  But 
I  am  not  quite  so  malevolent  as  that.  Some  of  them  are 
misguided;  some  of  them  are  blind;  most  of  them  are  igno 
rant.  I  would  rather  pray  for  them  than  abuse  them.  The 
great  voice  of  America  ought  to  make  them  understand 
what  they  are  said  to  be  attempting  now  really  means.  I 
have  to  say  "are  said  to  be  attempting,"  because  they  do 
not  come  and  tell  me  that  they  are  attempting  them.  I  do 
not  know  why.  I  would  express  my  opinion  of  them  in 
parliamentary  language,  but  I  would  express  it,  I  hope,  no 
less  plainly  because  couched  in  the  terms  of  courtesy.  This 
country  is  bursting  its  j  acket,  and  they  are  seeing  to  it  that 
the  jacket  is  not  only  kept  tight  but  is  riveted  with  steel. 

The  Democratic  party  does  know  how  to  serve  business 
in  this  country,  and  its  future  program  is  a  program  of 
service.  We  have  cleared  the  decks.  We  have  laid  the 
lines  now  upon  which  business  that  was  to  do  the  country 
harm  shall  be  stopped  and  an  economic  control  which  was 
intolerable  shall  be  broken  up.  We  have  emancipated 
America,  but  America  must  do  something  with  her  freedom. 
There  are  great  bills  pending  in  the  United  States  Senate 
just  now  that  have  been  passed  by  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  which  are  intended  as  constructive  measures  in 
behalf  of  business — one  great  measure  which  will  make 
available  the  enormous  water  powers  of  this  country  for 
the  industry  of  it;  another  bill  which  will  unlock  the  re 
sources  of  the  public  domain  which  the  Republicans,  desir 
ing  to  save,  locked  up  so  that  nobody  could  use  them. 

The  reason  I  say  the  Republicans  have  not  had  a  new 

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idea  in  thirty  years  is  that  they  have  not  known  how  to  do 
anything  except  sit  on  the  lid.  If  you  can  release  the  steam 
so  that  it  will  drive  great  industries,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
sit  on  the  lid.  What  we  are  trying  to  do  in  the  great  con 
servation  bill  is  to  carry  out  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  United  States  a  system  by  which  the  great  resources 
of  this  country  can  be  used  instead  of  being  set  aside  so 
that  no  man  can  get  at  them.  I  shall  watch  with  a  great 
deal  of  interest  what  the  self-styled  friends  of  business  try 
to  do  to  those  bills.  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  There  are 
some  men  on  that  side  of  the  Chamber  who  understand  the 
value  of  these  things  and  are  standing  valiantly  by  them, 
but  they  are  a  small  minority.  The  majority  that  is  stand 
ing  by  them  is  on  our  side  of  the  Chamber,  and  they  are  the 
friends  of  America. 

But  there  are  other  things  which  we  have  to  do.  Some 
times  when  I  look  abroad,  my  friends,  and  see  the  great 
mass  of  struggling  humanity  on  this  continent,  it  goes  very 
much  to  my  heart  to  see  how  many  men  are  at  a  disadvan 
tage  and  are  without  guides  and  helpers.  Don't  you  think 
it  would  be  a  pretty  good  idea  for  the  Democratic  party 
to  undertake  a  systematic  method  of  helping  the  working- 
men  of  America?  There  is  one  very  simple  way  in  which 
they  can  help  the  workingmen.  If  you  were  simply  to  es 
tablish  a  great  Federal  employment  bureau,  it  would  do  a 
vast  deal.  By  the  Federal  agencies  which  spread  over  this 
country  men  could  be  directed  to  those  parts  of  the  country, 
to  those  undertakings,  to  those  tasks  where  they  could  find 
profitable  employment.  The  labor  of  this  country  needs 
to  be  guided  from  opportunity  to  opportunity.  We  proved 
it  the  other  day.  We  were  told  that  in  two  States  of  the 
Union  30,000  men  were  needed  to  gather  the  crops.  We 
suggested  in  a  Cabinet  meeting  that  the  Department  of 
Labor  should  have  printed  information  about  this  in  such 
form  that  it  could  be  posted  up  in  the  post  offices  all  over 
the  United  States,  and  that  the  Department  of  Labor  should 

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get  in  touch  with  the  labor  departments  of  the  States,  so 
that  notice  could  go  out  from  them,  and  their  cooperation 
obtained.  What  was  the  result?  Those  30,000  men  were 
found  and  were  sent  to  the  places  where  they  got  profitable 
employment.  I  do  not  know  any  one  thing  that  has  hap 
pened  in  my  administration  that  made  me  feel  happier 
than  that — that  the  job  and  the  man  had  been  brought 
together.  It  will  not  cost  a  great  deal  of  money  and  it 
will  do  a  great  deal  of  service  if  the  United  States  were  to 
undertake  to  do  such  things  systematically  and  all  the 
year  round;  and  I  for  my  part  hope  that  it  will  do  that. 
If  I  were  writing  an  additional  plank  for  a  Democratic 
platform,  I  would  put  that  in. 

There  is  another  thing  that  needs  very  much  to  be  done. 
I  am  not  one  of  those  who  doubt  either  the  industry  or  the 
learning  or  the  integrity  of  the  courts  of  the  United  States, 
but  I  do  know  that  they  have  a  very  antiquated  way  of  do 
ing  business.  I  do  know  that  the  United  States  in  its  ju 
dicial  procedure  is  many  decades  behind  every  other  civil 
ized  Government  in  the  world,  and  I  say  that  it  is  an  im 
mediate  and  an  imperative  call  upon  us  to  rectify  that, 
because  the  speediness  of  justice,  the  inexpensiveness  of 
justice,  the  ready  access  to  justice,  is  the  greater  part  of 
justice  itself.  .  .  . 

Then  there  is  something  else.  The  Democrats  have 
heard  the  Republicans  talking  about  the  scientific  way  in 
which  to  handle  a  tariff,  though  the  Republicans  have  never 
given  any  exhibition  of  a  knowledge  of  how  to  handle  it 
scientifically.  If  it  is  scientific  to  put  additional  profits 
into  the  hands  of  those  who  are  already  getting  the  greater 
part  of  the  profits,  then  they  have  been  exceedingly  scien 
tific.  It  has  been  the  science  of  selfishness ;  it  has  been  the 
science  of  privilege.  That  kind  of  science  I  do  not  care 
to  know  anything  about  except  enough  to  stop  it.  But  if 
by  scientific  treatment  of  the  tariff  they  mean  adjustment 
to  the  actual  trade  conditions  of  America  and  the  world, 

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then  I  am  with  them;  and  I  want  to  call  their  attention 
— for  though  they  voted  for  it  they  apparently  have  not 
noticed  it — to  the  fact  that  the  bill  which  creates  the  new 
Trade  Commission  does  that  very  thing.  We  were  at  pains 
to  see  that  it  was  put  in  there.  That  commission  is  au 
thorized  and  empowered  to  inquire  into  and  report  to  Con 
gress  not  only  upon  all  the  conditions  of  trade  in  this 
country,  but  upon  the  conditions  of  trade,  the  cost  of  manu 
facture,  the  cost  of  transportation — all  the  things  that 
enter  into  the  question  of  the  tariff — in  foreign  countries 
and  into  all  those  questions  of  foreign  combinations  which 
affect  international  trade  between  Europe  and  the  United 
States.  It  has  the  full  powers  which  will  guide  Congress 
in  the  scientific  treatment  of  questions  of  international 
trade.  Being  by  profession  a  schoolmaster,  I  am  glad  to 
point  that  out  to  the  class  of  uninstructed  Republicans, 
though  I  have  not  always  taught  in  the  primary  grade. 

At  every  turn  the  things  that  the  progressive  Repub 
licans  have  proposed  that  were  practicable,  the  Democrats 
either  have  done  or  are  immediately  proposing  to  do.  If 
that  is  not  our  bill  of  particulars  to  satisfy  the  independ 
ent  voters  of  the  country,  I  would  like  to  have  one  pro 
duced.  There  are  things  that  the  Progressive  program 
contained  which  we,  being  constitutional  lawyers,  hap 
pened  to  know  can  not  be  done  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  That  is  a  detail  which  they  seem  to  have 
overlooked.  But  so  far  as  they  can  be  done  by  State  leg 
islatures,  I,  for  one,  speaking  for  one  Democrat,  am 
heartily  in  favor  of  their  being  done.  .  .  . 

Just  before  I  came  away  from  Washington  I  was  going 
over  some  of  the  figures  of  the  last  elections,  the  elections 
of  November  last.  The  official  returns  have  not  all  come 
in  yet.  I  do  not  know  why  they  are  so  slow  in  getting 
to  us,  but  so  far  as  they  have  come  in  they  have  given  me 
this  useful  information,  that  taking  the  States  where  Sen 
ators  were  elected,  and  where  Senators  were  not  elected 

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taking  the  election  of  Governors,  and  whtre  Governors 
were  not  elected  taking  the  returns  for  the  State  legisla 
tures  or  for  the  Congressional  delegates,  the  Democrats, 
reckoning  State  by  State,  would,  if  it  had  been  a  presi 
dential  year,  have  had  a  majority  of  about  eighty  in  the 
Electoral  College.  Fortunately  or  unfortunately,  this  is 
not  a  presidential  year;  but  the  thing  is  significant  to  me 
for  this  reason.  A  great  many  people  have  been  speaking 
of  the  Democratic  party  as  a  minority  party.  Well,  if  it 
is,  it  is  not  so  much  of  a  minority  party  as  the  Republican, 
and  as  between  the  minorities  I  think  we  can  claim  to  be 
long  to  the  larger  minority.  The  moral  of  that  is  merely 
what  I  have  already  been  pointing  out  to  you,  that  neither 
party  in  its  regular  membership  has  a  majority.  I  do  not 
want  to  make  the  independent  voter  too  proud  of  himself, 
but  I  have  got  to  admit  that  he  is  our  boss ;  and  I  am  bound 
to  admit  that  the  things  that  he  wants  are,  so  far  as  I 
have  seen  them  mentioned,  things  that  I  want. 

I  am  not  an  independent  voter,  but  I  hope  I  can  claim 
to  be  an  independent  person,  and  I  want  to  say  this  dis 
tinctly:  I  do  not  love  any  party  any  longer  than  it  con 
tinues  to  serve  the  immediate  and  pressing  needs  of  Amer 
ica.  I  have  been  bred  in  the  Democratic  party;  I  love 
the  Democratic  party;  but  I  love  America  a  great  deal 
more  than  I  love  the  Democratic  party;  and  when  the 
Democratic  party  thinks  that  it  is  an  end  in  itself,  then  I 
rise  up  and  dissent.  It  is  a  means  to  an  end,  and  its  power 
depends,  and  ought  to  depend,  upon  its  showing  that  it 
knows  what  America  needs  and  is  ready  to  give  it  what  it 
needs.  That  is  the  reason  I  say  to  the  independent  voter 
you  have  got  us  in  the  palm  of  your  hand.  I  do  not  happen 
to  be  one  of  your  number,  but  I  recognize  your  supremacy, 
because  I  read  the  election  returns;  and  I  have  this  am 
bition,  my  Democratic  friends — I  can  avow  it  on  Jackson 
day — I  want  to  make  every  independent  voter  in  this  coun 
try  a  Democrat.  It  is  a  little  cold  and  lonely  out  where 

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he  is,  because,  though  he  holds  the  balance  of  power,  he 
is  not  the  majority,  and  I  want  him  to  come  in  where  it  is 
warm.  I  want  him  to  come  in  where  there  is  a  lot  of  good 
society,  good  companionship,  where  there  are  great  emo 
tions.  That  is  what  I  miss  in  the  Republican  party;  they 
do  not  seem  to  have  any  great  emotions.  They  seem  to 
think  a  lot  of  things,  old  things,  but  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  any  enthusiasm  about  anything. 

There  is  one  thing  I  have  got  a  great  enthusiasm  about, 
I  might  almost  say  a  reckless  enthusiasm,  and  that  is 
human  liberty.  The  Governor  has  just  now  spoken  about 
watchful  waiting  in  Mexico.  I  want  to  say  a  word  about 
Mexico,  or  not  so  much  about  Mexico  as  about  our  atti 
tude  towards  Mexico.  I  hold  it  as  a  fundamental  prin 
ciple,  and  so  do  you,  that  every  people  has  the  right  to 
determine  its  own  form  of  government;  and  until  this  re 
cent  revolution  in  Mexico,  until  the  end  of  the  Diaz  reign, 
eighty  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  Mexico  never  had  a  "look 
in"  in  determining  who  should  be  their  governors  or  what 
their  government  should  be.  Now,  I  am  for  the  eighty 
per  cent !  It  is  none  of  my  business,  and  it  is  none  of  your 
business,  how  long  they  take  in  determining  it.  It  is  none 
of  my  business,  and  it  is  none  of  yours,  how  they  go  about 
the  business.  The  country  is  theirs.  The  Government  is 
theirs.  The  liberty,  if  they  can  get  it,  and  Godspeed  them 
in  getting  it,  is  theirs.  And  so  far  as  my  influence  goes 
while  I  am  President  nobody  shall  interfere  with  them. 

That  is  what  I  mean  by  a  great  emotion,  the  great  emo 
tion  of  sympathy.  Do  you  suppose  that  the  American 
people  are  ever  going  to  count  a  small  amount  of  material 
benefit  and  advantage  to  people  doing  business  in  Mexico 
against  the  liberties  and  the  permanent  happiness  of  the 
Mexican  people?  Have  not  European  nations  taken  as 
long  as  they  wanted  and  spilt  as  much  blood  as  they  pleased 
in  settling  their  affairs,  and  shall  we  deny  that  to  Mexico 
because  she  is  weak?  No,  I  say!  I  am  proud  to  belong 

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to  a  strong  nation  that  says,  "This  country  which  we  could 
crush  shall  have  just  as  much  freedom  in  her  own  affairs 
as  we  have."  If  I  am  strong,  I  am  ashamed  to  bully  the 
weak.  In  proportion  to  my  strength  is  my  pride  in  with 
holding  that  strength  from  the  oppression  of  another 
people.  And  I  know  when  I  speak  these  things,  not  merely 
from  the  generous  response  with  which  they  have  just  met 
from  you,  but  from  my  long-time  knowledge  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  that  that  is  the  sentiment  of  this  great  people. 
With  all  due  respect  to  editors  of  great  newspapers,  I  have 
to  say  to  them  that  I  seldom  take  my  opinion  of  the  Ameri 
can  people  from  their  editorials.  When  some  great  dailies, 
not  very  far  from  where  I  am  temporarily  residing,  thun 
dered  with  rising  scorn  at  watchful  waiting,  my  confidence 
was  not  for  a  moment  shaken.  I  knew  what  were  the 
temper  and  principles  of  the  American  people.  If  I  did 
not  at  least  think  I  knew,  I  would  emigrate,  because  I 
would  not  be  satisfied  to  stay  where  I  am.  There  may 
come  a  time  when  the  American  people  will  have  to  judge 
whether  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about  or  not,  but  at 
least  for  two  years  more  I  am  free  to  think  that  I  do,  with 
a  great  comfort  in  immunity  in  the  time  being. 

I  feel,  my  friends,  in  a  very  confident  mood  today.  I 
feel  confident  that  we  do  know  the  spirit  of  the  American 
people,  that  we  do  know  the  program  of  betterment  which 
it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  undertake,  that  we  do  have 
a  very  reasonable  confidence  in  the  support  of  the  Ameri 
can  people.  I  have  been  talking  with  business  men  re 
cently  about  the  present  state  of  mind  of  American  busi 
ness.  There  is  nothing  the  matter  with  American  business 
except  a  state  of  mind.  I  understand  that  your  chamber 
of  commerce  here  in  Indianapolis  is  working  now  upon 
the  motto,  "If  you  are  going  to  buy  it,  buy  it  now."  That 
is  a  perfectly  safe  maxim  to  act  on.  It  is  just  as  safe 
to  buy  it  now  as  it  ever  will  be,  and  if  you  start  the  buying 
there  will  be  no  end  to  it,  and  you  will  be  a  seller  as  well 


Woodrotv    Wilson 

as  a  buyer.  I  am  just  as  sure  of  that  as  I  can  be,  because 
I  have  taken  counsel  with  the  men  who  know.  I  never 
was  in  business  and,  therefore,  I  have  none  of  the  preju 
dices  of  business.  I  have  looked  on  and  tried  to  see  what 
the  interests  of  the  country  were  in  business;  I  have  taken 
counsel  with  men  who  did  know,  and  their  counsel  is  uni 
form,  that  all  that  is  needed  in  America  now  is  to  believe 
in  the  future;  and  I  can  assure  you  as  one  of  those  who 
speak  for  the  Democratic  party  that  it  is  perfectly  safe 
to  believe  in  the  future.  We  are  so  much  the  friends  of 
business  that  we  were  for  a  little  time  the  enemies  of  those 
who  were  trying  to  control  business.  I  say  "for  a  little 
time"  because  we  are  now  reconciled  to  them.  They  have 
graciously  admitted  that  we  had  a  right  to  do  what  we  did 
do,  and  they  have  very  handsomely  said  that  they  were 
going  to  play  the  game. 

I  believe — I  always  have  believed — that  American  busi 
ness  men  were  absolutely  sound  at  heart,  but  men  im 
mersed  in  business  do  a  lot  of  things  that  opportunity 
offers  which  in  other  circumstances  they  would  not  do; 
and  I  have  thought  all  along  that  all  that  was  necessary 
to  do  was  to  call  their  attention  sharply  to  the  kind  of  re 
forms  in  business  which  were  needed  and  that  they  would 
acquiesce.  Why,  I  believe  they  have  heartily  acquiesced. 
There  is  all  the  more  reason,  therefore,  that,  great  and 
small,  we  should  be  confident  in  the  future. 

And  what  a  future  it  is,  my  friends !  Look  abroad  upon 
the  troubled  world!  Only  America  at  peace!  Among  all 
the  great  powers  of  the  world  only  America  saving  her 
power  for  her  own  people!  Only  America  using  her  great 
character  and  her  great  strength  in  the  interests  of  peace 
and  of  prosperity!  Do  you  not  think  it  likely  that  the 
world  will  some  time  turn  to  America  and  say,  "You  were 
right  and  we  were  wrong.  You  kept  your  head  when  we 
lost  ours.  You  tried  to  keep  the  scale  from  tipping,  and 
we  threw  the  whole  weight  of  arms  in  one  side  of  the  scale. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Ntw,  in  your  self-posstssion,  in  your  coolness,  in  your 
strength,  may  we  not  turn  to  you  for  counsel  and  for  as 
sistance?"  Think  of  the  deep-wrought  destruction  of  eco 
nomic  resources,  of  life,  and  of  hope  that  is  taking  place 
in  some  parts  of  the  world,  and  think  of  the  reservoir  of 
hope,  the  reservoir  of  energy,  the  reservoir  of  sustenance 
that  there  is  in  this  great  land  of  plenty !  May  we  not 
look  forward  to  the  time  when  we  shall  be  called  blessed 
among  the  nations,  because  we  succored  the  nations  of  the 
world  in  their  time  of  distress  and  of  dismay?  I  for  one 
pray  God  that  that  solemn  hour  may  come,  and  I  know 
the  solidity  of  character  and  I  know  the  exaltation  of  hope, 
I  know  the  big  principle  with  which  the  American  people 
will  respond,  to  the  call  of  the  world  for  this  service.  I 
thank  God  that  those  who  believe  in  America,  who  try  to 
serve  her  people,  are  likely  to  be  also  what  America  her 
self  from  the  first  hoped  and  meant  to  be — the  servant 
of  mankind. 


WILSON  VETOES  IMMIGRATION  BILL  BECAUSE  OF  LITERACY 
TEST  AND  RESTRICTION  OF  POLITICAL  ASYLUM 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  January  28,  1915. 

To  the  House  of  Representatives: 

It  is  with  unaffected  regret  that  I  find  myself  constrained 
by  clear  conviction  to  return  this  bill  (H.  R.  6060,  "An  act 
to  regulate  the  immigation  of  aliens  to  and  the  residence 
of  aliens  in  the  United  States")  without  my  signature.  Not 
only  do  I  feel  it  to  be  a  very  serious  matter  to  exercise  the 
power  of  veto  in  any  case,  because  it  involves  opposing  the 
single  judgment  of  the  President  to  the  judgment  of  a  ma 
jority  of  both  the  Houses  of  the  Congress,  a  step  which 
no  man  who  realizes  his  own  liability  to  error  can  take 
without  great  hesitation,  but  also  because  this  particular 

94 


Woodrow    Wilson 

bill  is  in  so  many  important  respects  admirable,  well  con 
ceived,  and  desirable.  Its  enactment  into  law  would  un 
doubtedly  enhance  the  efficiency  and  improve  the  methods 
of  handling  the  important  branch  of  the  public  service  to 
which  it  relates.  But  candor  and  a  sense  of  duty  with  re 
gard  to  the  responsibility  so  clearly  imposed  upon  me  by 
the  Constitution  in  matters  of  legislation  leave  me  no  choice 
but  to  dissent. 

In  two  particulars  of  vital  consequence  this  bill  embodies 
a  radical  departure  from  the  traditional  and  long-established 
policy  of  this  country,  a  policy  in  which  our  people  have 
conceived  the  very  character  of  their  Government  to  be  ex 
pressed,  the  very  mission  and  spirit  of  the  Nation  in  re 
spect  of  its  relations  to  the  peoples  of  the  world  outside 
their  borders.  It  seeks  to  all  but  close  entirely  the  gates 
of  asylum  which  have  always  been  open  to  those  who  could 
find  nowhere  else  the  right  and  opportunity  of  constitu 
tional  agitation  for  what  they  conceived  to  be  the  natural 
and  inalienable  rights  of  men;  and  it  excludes  those  to 
whom  the  opportunities  of  elementary  education  have  been 
denied,  without  regard  to  their  character,  their  purposes, 
or  their  natural  capacity. 

Restrictions  like  these,  adopted  earlier  in  our  history  as 
a  Nation,  would  very  materially  have  altered  the  course  and 
cooled  the  humane  ardors  of  our  politics.  The  right  of 
political  asylum  has  brought  to  this  country  many  a  man 
of  noble  character  and  elevated  purpose  who  was  marked 
as  an  outlaw  in  his  own  less  fortunate  land,  and  who  has 
yet  become  an  ornament  to  our  citizenship  and  to  our  pub 
lic  councils.  The  children  and  the  compatriots  of  these 
illustrious  Americans  must  stand  amazed  to  see  the  repre 
sentatives  of  their  Nation  now  resolved,  in  the  fullness  of 
our  national  strength  and  at  the  maturity  of  our  great 
institutions,  to  risk  turning  such  men  back  from  our  shores 
without  test  of  quality  or  purpose.  It  is  difficult  for  me 
to  believe  that  the  full  effect  of  this  feature  of  the  bill 

95 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

was  realized  when  it  was  framed  and  adopted,  and  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  assent  to  it  in  the  form  in  which  it  is 
here  cast. 

The  literacy  test  and  the  tests  and  restrictions  which  ac 
company  it  constitute  an  even  more  radical  change  in  the 
policy  of  the  Nation.  Hitherto  we  have  generously  kept 
our  doors  open  to  all  who  were  not  unfitted  by  reason  of 
disease  or  incapacity  for  self-support  or  such  personal  rec 
ords  and  antecedents  as  were  likely  to  make  them  a  menace 
to  our  peace  and  order  or  to  the  wholesome  and  essential 
relationships  of  life.  In  this  bill  it  is  proposed  to  turn 
away  from  tests  of  character  and  of  quality  and  impose 
tests  which  exclude  and  restrict;  for  the  new  tests  here 
embodied  are  not  tests  of  quality  or  of  character  or  of  per 
sonal  fitness,  but  tests  of  opportunity.  Those  who  come 
seeking  opportunity  are  not  to  be  admitted  unless  they  have 
already  had  one  of  the  chief  of  the  opportunities  they  seek,, 
the  opportunity  of  education.  The  object  of  such  pro 
visions  is  restriction,  not  selection. 

If  the  people  of  this  country  have  made  up  their  minds 
to  limit  the  number  of  immigrants  by  arbitrary  tests  and 
so  reverse  the  policy  of  all  the  generations  of  Americans 
that  have  gone  before  them,  it  is  their  right  to  do  so.  I  am 
their  servant  and  have  no  license  to  stand  in  their  way. 
But  I  do  not  believe  that  they  have.  I  respectfully  submit 
that  no  one  can  quote  their  mandate  to  that  effect.  Has  any 
political  party  ever  avowed  a  policy  of  restriction  in  this 
fundamental  matter,  gone  to  the  country  on  it,  and  been 
commissioned  to  control  its  legislation?  Does  this  bill  rest 
upon  the  conscious  and  universal  assent  and  desire  of  the 
American  people?  I  doubt  it.  It  is  because  I  doubt  it 
that  I  make  bold  to  dissent  from  it.  I  am  willing  to  abide 
by  the  verdict,  but  not  until  it  has  been  rendered.  Let  the 
platforms  of  parties  speak  out  upon  this  policy  and  the 
people  pronounce  their  wish.  The  matter  is  too  fundamen 
tal  to  be  settled  otherwise. 

96 


Woodrow  Wilson 

I  have  no  pride  of  opinion  in  this  question.  I  am  not 
foolish  enough  to  profess  to  know  the  wishes  and  ideals  of 
America  better  than  the  body  of  her  chosen  representatives 
know  them.  I  only  want  instruction  direct  from  those 
whose  fortunes,  with  ours  and  all  men's,  are  involved. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

[Just  two  years  later — on  January  29,  1917 — President  Wilson 
again  vetoed  an  Immigration  bill  carrying  a  literacy  test.  An 
additional  reason  then  was  that  exempting  those  fleeing  from  re 
ligious  persecution  was  likely  to  lead  to  international  complications. 
But  Congress  immediately  repassed  the  bill  by  large  majorities, 
and  the  literacy  test  thus  became  a  law,  after  having  been  vetoed 
by  Presidents  Cleveland,  Taft,  and  Wilson.] 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  AMERICAN  ELECTRIC  RAIL 
WAY  ASSOCIATION,  WASHINGTON,  JANUARY  29,  1915 

[Referring  to  the  beneficent  influence  the  new  Federal  Trade 
Commission  should  exert  on  "big  business" — the  era  of  suspicion 
passed,  the  era  of  confidence  entered.] 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to  be  here  and  to  look  this 
company  in  the  face.  I  know  how  important  the  interests 
that  you  represent  are.  .  .  . 

It  seems  to  me  that  I  can  say  with  a  good  deal  of  con 
fidence  that  we  are  upon  the  eve  of  a  new  era  of  enterprise 
and  of  prosperity.  Enterprise  has  been  checked  in  this 
country  for  almost  twenty  years,  because  men  were  moving 
amongst  a  maze  of  interrogation  points.  They  did  not 
know  what  was  going  to  happen  to  them.  All  sorts  of 
regulation  were  proposed,  and  it  was  a  matter  of  uncer 
tainty  what  sort  of  regulation  was  going  to  be  adopted. 
All  sorts  of  charges  were  made  against  business,  as  if  busi 
ness  were  at  default,  when  most  men  knew  that  the  great 
majority  of  business  men  were  honest,  were  public-spirited, 
were  intending  the  right  thing,  and  the  many  were  made 
afraid  because  the  few  did  not  do  what  was  right. 

97 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

The  most  necessary  thing,  therefore,  was  for  us  to  agree, 
as  we  did  by  slow  stages  agree,  upon  the  main  particulars 
of  what  ought  not  to  be  done  and  then  to  put  our  laws  in 
such  shape  as  to  correspond  with  that  general  judgment. 
That,  I  say,  was  a  necessary  preliminary  not  only  to  a  com 
mon  understanding,  but  also  to  a  universal  cooperation. 
The  great  forces  of  a  country  like  this  can  not  pull  sep 
arately;  they  have  got  to  pull  together.  And  except  upon 
a  basis  of  common  understanding  as  to  the  law  and  as  to  the 
proprieties  of  conduct,  it  is  impossible  to  pull  together.  I, 
for  one,  have  never  doubted  that  all  America  was  of  one 
principle.  I  have  never  doubted  that  all  America  believed 
in  doing  what  was  fair  and  honorable  and  of  good  report. 
But  the  method,  the  method  of  control  by  law  against  the 
small  minority  that  was  recalcitrant  against  these  prin 
ciples,  was  a  thing  that  it  was  difficult  to  determine  upon; 
and  it  was  a  very  great  burden,  let  me  say,  to  fall  upon  a 
particular  administration  of  this  Government  to  have  to 
undertake  practically  the  whole  business  of  final  definition. 
That  is  what  has  been  attempted  by  the  Congress  now 
about  to  come  to  a  close.  It  has  attempted  the  definitions 
for  which  the  country  had  been  getting  ready,  or  trying 
to  get  ready,  for  half  a  generation.  It  will  require  a  pe 
riod  of  test  to  determine  whether  they  have  successfully 
defined  them  or  not;  but  no  one  needs  to  have  it  proved 
to  him  that  it  was  necessary  to  define  them  and  remove 
the  uncertainties,  and  that,  the  uncertainties  being  removed, 
common  understandings  are  possible  and  a  universal  cooper 
ation. 

You,  gentlemen,  representing  these  arteries  of  which  I 
have  spoken,  that  serve  to  release  the  forces  of  communi 
ties  and  serve,  also,  to  bind  community  with  community,  are 
surely  in  a  better  position  than  the  men  perhaps  of  any  other 
profession  to  understand  how  communities  constitute  units — 
how  even  a  nation  constitutes  a  unit ;  and  that  what  is  detri 
mental  and  hurtful  to  a  part  you,  above  all  men,  ought  to 

98 


Woodro(&    Wilson 

know  is  detrimental  to  all.  You  can  not  demoralize  some 
of  the  forces  of  a  community  without  being  in  danger  of 
demoralizing  all  the  forces  of  a  community.  Your  interest 
is  not  in  the  congestion  of  life,  but  in  the  release  of  life. 
Your  interest  is  not  in  isolation,  but  in  union,  the  union  of 
parts  of  this  great  country,  so  that  every  energy  in  those 
parts  will  flow  freely  and  with  full  force  from  county  to 
county  throughout  the  whole  nation. 

What  I  have  come  to  speak  of  this  afternoon  is  this 
unity  of  our  interest,  and  I  want  to  make  some — I  will  not 
say  "predictions,"  but  to  use  a  less  dangerous  though  bigger 
word — prognostications.  I  understand  that  there  is  among 
the  medical  profession  diagnosis  and  prognosis.  I  dare 
say  the  prognosis  is  more  difficult  than  the  diagnosis,  since 
it  has  to  come  first;  and  not  being  a  physician,  I  have  all 
the  greater  courage  in  the  prognosis.  I  have  noticed  all 
my  life  that  I  could  speak  with  the  greatest  freedom  about 
those  things  that  I  did  not  understand ;  but  there  are  some 
things  that  a  man  is  bound  to  try  to  think  out  whether  he 
fully  comprehends  them  or  not.  The  thought  of  no  single 
man  can  comprehend  the  life  of  a  great  Nation  like  this, 
and  yet  men  in  public  life  upon  whom  the  burden  of  guid 
ance  is  laid  must  attempt  to  comprehend  as  much  of  it  as 
they  can.  Their  strength  will  lie  in  common  counsel; 
their  strength  will  lie  in  taking  counsel  of  as  many  in 
formed  persons  as  possible  in  each  department  with  which 
they  have  to  deal;  but  some  time  or  other  the  point  will 
come  when  they  have  to  make  a  decision  based  upon  a 
prognosis.  We  have  had  to  do  that  in  attempting  the  defi 
nitions  of  law  which  have  been  attempted  by  this  Congress, 
and  now  it  is  necessary  for  us,  in  order  to  go  forward 
with  the  confident  spirit  with  which  I  believe  we  can  go 
forward,  to  look  ahead  and  see  the  things  that  are  likely 
to  happen. 

In  the  first  place,  I  feel  that  the  mists  and  miasmic  airs 
of  suspicion  that  have  filled  the  business  world  have  now 


Addresses  and  State  Papers 


been  blown  away.  I  believe  that  we  have  passed  the  era 
of  suspicion  and  have  come  into  the  era  of  confidence.  Know 
ing  the  elements  we  have  to  deal  with,  we  can  deal  with 
them;  and  with  that  confidence  of  knowledge  we  can  have 
confidence  of  enterprise.  That  enterprise  is  going  to  mean 
this:  Nobody  is  henceforth  going  to  be  afraid  of  or  sus 
picious  of  any  business  merely  because  it  is  big.  If  my 
judgment  is  correct,  nobody  has  been  suspicious  of  any 
business  merely  because  it  was  big;  but  they  have  been 
suspicious  whenever  they  thought  that  the  bigness  was 
being  used  to  take  an  unfair  advantage.  We  all  have  to 
admit  that  it  is  easier  for  a  big  fellow  to  take  advantage  of 
you  than  for  a  little  fellow  to  take  advantage  of  you  ;  there 
fore,  we  instinctively  watch  the  big  fellow  with  a  little  closer 
scrutiny  than  we  watch  the  little  fellow.  But,  bond  having 
been  given  for  the  big  fellow,  we  can  sleep  o'nights.  Bond 
having  been  given  that  he  will  keep  the  peace,  we  do  not 
have  to  spend  our  time  and  waste  our  energy  watching  him. 
The  conditions  of  confidence  being  established,  nobody  need 
think  that  if  he  is  taller  than  the  rest  anybody  is  going 
to  throw  a  stone  at  him  simply  because  he  is  a  favorable 
target  —  always  provided  there  is  fair  dealing  and  real 
service. 

Because  the  characteristic  of  modern  business,  gentlemen, 
is  this:  The  number  of  cases  in  which  men  do  business 
on  their  own  individual,  private  capital  is  relatively  small 
in  our  day.  Almost  all  the  greater  enterprises  are  done 
on  what  is,  so  far  as  the  managers  of  that  business  are 
concerned,  other  people's  money.  That  is  what  a  joint- 
stock  company  means.  It  means,  "Won't  you  lend  us  your 
resources  to  conduct  this  business  and  trust  us,  a  little 
group  of  managers,  to  see  that  you  get  honest  and  proper 
returns  for  your  money?"  and  no  man  who  manages  a  joint- 
stock  company  can  know  for  many  days  together,  without 
fresh  inquiry,  who  his  partners  are,  because  the  stock  is 
constantly  changing  hands,  and  the  partners  are  seldom  the 

100 


Woodrotc .  Wilson  . 

same  people  for  long  periods  together.  Which  amounts 
to  saying  that,  inasmuch  as  you  are  using  the  money  of 
everybody  who  chooses  to  come  in,  your  responsibility  is 
to  everybody  who  has  come  in  or  who  may  come  in.  That 
is  simply  another  way  of  saying  that  your  business  is,  so 
far  forth,  a  public  business,  and  you  owe  it  to  the  public 
to  take  them  into  your  confidence  in  regard  to  the  way  in 
which  it  is  conducted. 

The  era  of  private  business  in  the  sense  of  business  con 
ducted  with  the  money  of  the  partners — I  mean  of  the  man 
aging  partners — is  practically  passed,  not  only  in  this  coun 
try,  but  almost  everywhere.  Therefore,  almost  all  busi 
ness  has  this  direct  responsibility  to  the  public  in  general: 
We  owe  s.  constant  report  to  the  public,  whose  money  we 
are  constantly  asking  for  in  order  to  conduct  the  business 
itself.  Therefore,  we  have  got  to  trade  not  only  on  our 
efficiency,  not  only  on  the  service  that  we  render,  but  on 
the  confidence  that  we  cultivate.  There  is  a  new  atmosphere 
for  business.  The  oxygen  that  the  lungs  of  modern  busi 
ness  takes  in  is  the  oxygen  of  the  public  confidence,  and  if 
you  have  not  got  that,  your  business  is  essentially  paralyzed 
and  asphyxiated. 

I  take  it  that  we  are  in  a  position  now  to  come  to  a 
common  understanding,  knowing  that  only  a  common  un 
derstanding  will  be  the  stable  basis  of  business,  and  that 
what  we  want  for  business  hereafter  is  the  same  kind  of 
liberty  that  we  want  for  the  individual.  The  liberty  of  the 
individual  is  limited  with  the  greatest  sharpness  where  his 
actions  come  into  collision  with  the  interests  of  the  com 
munity  he  lives  in.  My  liberty  consists  in  a  sort  of  parole. 
Society  says  to  me,  "You  may  do  what  you  please  until 
you  do  something  that  is  in  violation  of  the  common  under 
standing,  of  the  public  interest;  then  your  parole  is  for 
feited.  We  will  take  you  into  custody.  We  will  limit  your 
activities.  We  will  penalize  you  if  you  use  this  thing  that 
you  call  your  liberty  against  our  interest."  Business  does 

IQ1 


s,  A ddresses  and  State  Papers 

not  want,  and  ought  not  to  ask  for,  more  liberty  than  the 
individual  has;  and  I  have  always  in  my  own  thought 
summed  up  individual  liberty,  and  business  liberty,  and 
every  other  kind  of  liberty,  in  the  phrase  that  is  common 
in  the  sporting  world,  "A  free  field  and  no  favor." 

There  have  been  times — I  will  not  specify  them,  but  there 
have  been  times — when  the  field  looked  free,  but  when 
there  were  favors  received  from  the  managers  of  the  course ; 
when  there  were  advantages  given;  inside  tracks  accorded; 
practices  which  would  block  the  other  runners ;  rules  which 
would  exclude  the  amateur  who  wanted  to  get  in.  That 
may  be  a  free  field,  but  there  is  favor,  there  is  partiality, 
there  is  preference,  there  is  covert  advantage  taken  of  some 
body,  and  while  it  looks  very  well  from  the  grandstand, 
there  are  men  whom  you  can  find  who  were  not  allowed  to 
get  in  to  the  track  and  test  their  powers  against  the  other 
men  who  were  racing  for  the  honors  of  the  day. 

I  think  it  is  a  serviceable  figure.  It  means  this:  That 
you  are  not  going  to  be  barred  from  the  contest  because 
you  are  big  and  strong,  and  you  are  not  going  to  be  pen 
alized  because  you  are  big  and  strong,  but  you  are  going 
to  be  made  to  observe  the  rules  of  the  track  and  not  get 
in  anybody's  way  except  as  you  can  keep  ahead  of  him  by 
having  more  vigor  and  skill  than  he  has.  When  we  get 
that  understanding,  that  we  are  all  sports,  and  that  we  are 
not  going  to  ask  for,  not  only,  but  we  are  not  going  to 
condescend  to  take,  advantage  of  anything  that  does  not 
belong  to  us,  then  the  atmosphere  will  clear  so  that  it  will 
seem  as  if  the  sun  had  never  shone  as  it  does  that  day. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  true  sportsmanship  that  ought  to  get 
into  everything,  and  men  who,  when  they  get  beaten  that 
way,  squeal  do  not  deserve  our  pity.  ,  .  . 


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Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  UNITED  STATES  CHAMBER 
OF  COMMERCE,  WASHINGTON,  FEBRUARY  3,  1915 

[The  war  in  Europe,  then  ending  its  sixth  month,  had  already 
begun  to  increase  enormously  the  foreign  trade  of  the  United 
States.  It  had  also,  however,  brought  limitations  of  markets.  The 
President  here  began  to  urge  that  American  business  should  prop 
erly  seek  new  foreign  fields.] 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  feel  that  it  is  hardly  fair  to  you  for  me  to  come  in  in 
this  casual  fashion  among  a  body  of  men  who  have  been 
seriously  discussing  great  questions,  and  it  is  hardly  fair 
to  me,  because  I  come  in  cold,  not  having  had  the  advan 
tage  of  sharing  the  atmosphere  of  your  deliberations  and 
catching  the  feeling  of  your  conference.  Moreover,  I  hardly 
know  just  how  to  express  my  interest  in  the  things  you  are 
jmdertaking.  .  .  . 

I  have  asked  myself  before  I  came  here  today,  what  rela 
tion  you  could  bear  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
and  what  relation  the  Government  could  bear  to  you? 

There  are  two  aspects  and  activities  of  the  Government 
with  which  you  will  naturally  come  into  most  direct  con 
tact.  The  first  is  the  Government's  power  of  inquiry,  sys 
tematic  and  disinterested  inquiry,  and  its  power  of  scien 
tific  assistance.  You  get  an  illustration  of  the  latter,  for 
example,  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Has  it  oc 
curred  to  you,  I  wonder,  that  we  are  just  upon  the  eve  of 
a  time  when  our  Department  of  Agriculture  will  be  of 
infinite  importance  to  the  whole  world?  There  is  a  short 
age  of  food  in  the  world  now.  That  shortage  will  be  much 
more  serious  a  few  months  from  now  than  it  is  now.  It  is 
necessary  that  we  should  plant  a  great  deal  more;  it  is 
necessary  that  our  lands  should  yield  more  per  acre  than 
they  do  now ;  it  is  necessary  that  there  should  not  be  a  plow 
or  a  spade  idle  in  this  country  if  the  world  is  to  be  fed. 
And  the  methods  of  our  farmers  must  feed  upon  the  scien 
tific  information  to  be  derived  from  the  State  departments 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

of  agriculture,  and  from  that  taproot  of  all,  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  object  and  use  of 
that  department  is  to  inform  men  of  the  latest  developments 
and  disclosures  of  science  with  regard  to  all  the  processes  by 
which  soils  can  be  put  to  their  proper  use  and  their  fertility 
made  the  greatest  possible.  Similarly  with  the  Bureau  of 
Standards.  It  is  ready  to  supply  those  things  by  which  you 
can  set  norms,  you  can  set  bases,  for  all  the  scientific  pro 
cesses  of  business. 

I  have  a  great  admiration  for  the  scientific  parts  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  it  has  amazed  me 
that  so  few  men  have  discovered  them.  Here  in  these  de 
partments  are  quiet  men,  trained  to  the  highest  degree  of 
skill,  serving  for  a  petty  remuneration  along  lines  that  are 
infinitely  useful  to  mankind;  and  yet  in  some  cases  they 
waited  to  be  discovered  until  this  Chamber  of  Commerce 
of  the  United  States  was  established.  Coming  to  this  city, 
officers  of  that  association  found  that  there  were  here  things 
that  were  infinitely  useful  to  them  and  with  which  the 
whole  United  States  ought  to  be  put  into  communication. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is  very  properly 
a  great  instrumentality  of  inquiry  and  information.  One 
thing  we  are  just  beginning  to  do  that  we  ought  to  have 
done  long  ago:  We  ought  long  ago  to  have  had  our  Bureau 
of  Foreign  and  Domestic  Commerce.  We  ought  long  ago 
to  have  sent  the  best  eyes  of  the  Government  out  into  the 
world  to  see  where  the  opportunities  and  openings  of  Ameri 
can  commerce  and  American  genius  were  to  be  found — 
men  who  were  not  sent  out  as  the  commercial  agents  of  any 
particular  set  of  business  men  in  the  United  States,  but  who 
were  eyes  for  the  whole  business  community.  .  .  . 

We  are  just  beginning  to  do,  systematically  and  scien 
tifically,  what  we  ought  long  ago  to  have  done,  to  employ 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  survey  the  world 
in  order  that  American  commerce  might  be  guided. 

But  there  are  other  ways  of  using  the  Government  of  the 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

United  States,  ways  that  have  long  been  tried,  though  not 
always  with  conspicuous  success  or  fortunate  results.  You 
can  use  the  Government  of  the  United  States  by  influencing 
its  legislation.  That  has  been  a  very  active  industry,  but 
it  has  not  always  been  managed  in  the  interest  of  the  whole 
people.  It  is  very  instructive  and  useful  for  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  have  such  means  as  you  are 
ready  to  supply  for  getting  a  sort  of  consensus  of  opinion 
which  proceeds  from  no  particular  quarter  and  originates 
with  no  particular  interest.  Information  is  the  very  foun 
dation  of  all  right  action  in  legislation.  .  .  . 

If  we  on  the  outside  cannot  understand  the  thing  and 
cannot  get  advice  from  the  inside,  then  we  will  have  to  do 
it  with  the  flat  hand  and  not  with  the  touch  of  skill  and 
discrimination.  Isn't  that  true  ?  Men  on  the  inside  of  busi 
ness  know  how  business  is  conducted  and  they  cannot  com 
plain  if  men  on  the  outside  make  mistakes  about  business 
if  they  do  not  come  from  the  inside  and  give  the  kind  of 
advice  which  is  necessary. 

The  trouble  has  been  that  when  they  came  in  the  past — 
for  I  think  the  thing  is  changing  very  rapidly — they  came 
with  all  their  bristles  out ;  they  came  on  the  defensive ;  they 
came  to  see,  not  what  they  could  accomplish,  but  what  they 
could  prevent.  They  did  not  come  to  guide;  they  came  to 
block.  That  is  of  no  use  whatever  to  the  general  body 
politic.  What  has  got  to  pervade  us  like  a  great  motive 
power  is  that  we  cannot,  and  must  not,  separate  our  in 
terests  from  one  another,  but  must  pool  our  interests.  A 
man  who  is  trying  to  fight  for  his  single  hand  is  fighting 
against  the  community  and  not  fighting  with  it.  There  are 
•  a  great  many  dreadful  things  about  war,  as  nobody  needs 
to  be  told  in  this  day  of  distress  and  of  terror,  but  there 
is  one  thing  about  war  which  has  a  very  splendid  side,  and 
that  is  the  consciousness  that  a  whole  nation  gets  that  they 
must  all  act  as  a  unit  for  a  common  end.  And  when  peace 
is  as  handsome  as  war  there  will  be  no  war.  When  men, 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

I  mean,  engage  in  the  pursuits  of  peace  in  the  same  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  and  of  conscious  service  of  the  community 
with  which,  at  any  rate,  the  common  soldier  engages  in  war, 
then  shall  there  be  wars  no  more.  You  have  moved  the 
vanguard  for  the  United  States  in  the  purposes  of  this  as 
sociation  just  a  little  nearer  that  ideal.  That  is  the  reason 
I  am  here,  because  I  believe  it. 

There  is  a  specific  matter  about  which  I,  for  one,  want 
your  advice.  Let  me  say,  if  I  may  say  it  without  dis 
respect,  that  I  do  not  think  you  are  prepared  to  give  it 
right  away.  You  will  have  to  make  some  rather  extended 
inquiries  before  you  are  ready  to  give  it.  What  I  am  think 
ing  of  is  competition  in  foreign  markets  as  between  the 
merchants  of  different  nations. 

I  speak  of  the  subject  with  a  certain  degree  of  hesita 
tion,  because  the  thing  farthest  from  my  thought  is  taking 
advantage  of  nations  now  disabled  from  playing  their  full 
part  in  that  competition,  and  seeking  a  sudden  selfish  ad 
vantage  because  they  are  for  the  time  being  disabled.  Pray 
believe  me  that  we  ought  to  eliminate  all  that  thought  from 
our  minds  and  consider  this  matter  as  if  we  and  the  other 
nations  now  at  war  were  in  the  normal  circumstances  of 
commerce. 

There  is  a  normal  circumstance  of  commerce  in  which 
we  are  apparently  at  a  disadvantage.  Our  anti-trust  laws 
are  thought  by  some  to  make  it  illegal  for  merchants  in  the 
United  States  to  form  combinations  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  themselves  in  taking  advantage  of  the  oppor 
tunities  of  foreign  trade.  That  is  a  very  serious  matter 
for  this  reason:  There  are  some  corporations,  and  some 
firms  for  all  I  know,  whose  business  is  great  enough  and 
whose  resources  are  abundant  enough  to  enable  them  to 
establish  selling  agencies  in  foreign  countries;  to  enable 
them  to  extend  the  long  credits  which  in  some  cases  are 
necessary  in  order  to  keep  the  trade  they  desire;  to  enable 
them,  in  other  words,  to  organize  their  business  in  foreign 

106 


Woodrow    Wilson 

territory  in  a  way  which  the  smaller  man  cannot  afford 
to  do.  His  business  has  not  grown  big  enough  to  permit 
him  to  establish  selling  agencies.  The  export  commission 
merchant,  perhaps,  taxes  him  a  little  too  highly  to  make 
that  an  available  competitive  means  of  conducting  and  ex 
tending  his  business. 

The  question  arises,  therefore,  how  are  the  smaller  mer 
chants,  how  are  the  younger  and  weaker  corporations  going 
to  get  a  foothold  as  against  the  combinations  which  are  per 
mitted  and  even  encouraged  by  foreign  governments  in  this 
field  of  competition  ?  There  are  governments  which,  as  you 
know,  distinctly  encourage  the  formation  of  great  combina 
tions  in  each  particular  field  of  commerce  in  order  to  main 
tain  selling  agencies  and  to  extend  long  credits,  and  to 
use  and  maintain  the  machinery  which  is  necessary  for  the 
extension  of  business;  and  American  merchants  feel  that 
they  are  at  a  very  considerable  disadvantage  in  contending 
against  that.  The  matter  has  been  many  times  brought  to 
my  attention,  and  I  have  each  time  suspended  judgment. 
I  want  to  be  shown  this:  I  want  to  be  shown  how  such  a 
combination  can  be  made  and  conducted  in  a  way  which 
will  not  close  it  against  the  use  of  everybody  who  wants 
to  use  it.  A  combination  has  a  tendency  to  exclude  new 
members.  When  a  group  of  men  get  control  of  a  good 
thing,  they  do  not  see  any  particular  point  in  letting  other 
people  into  the  good  thing.  What  I  would  like  very  much 
to  be  shown,  therefore,  is  a  method  of  cooperation  which  is 
not  a  method  of  combination.  Not  that  the  two  words 
are  mutually  exclusive,  but  we  have  come  to  have  a  special 
meaning  attached  to  the  word  "combination."  Most  of  our 
combinations  have  a  safety  lock,  and  you  have  to  know  the 
combination  to  get  in.  I  want  to  know  how  these  coopera 
tive  methods  can  be  adopted  for  the  benefit  of  everybody 
who  wants  to  use  them,  and  I  say  frankly  if  I  can  be  shown 
that,  I  am  for  them.  If  I  can  not  be  shown  that,  I  am 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

against  them.     I  hasten  to  add  that  I  hopefully  expect  I  can 
be  shown  that. 

You,  as  I  have  just  now  intimated,  probably  can  not 
show  it  to  me  offhand,  but  by  the  methods  which  you  have 
the  means  of  using  you  certainly  ought  to  be  able  to  throw 
a  vast  deal  of  light  on  the  subject.  .  .  . 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  AT  A  MEETING  OF  THE  ASSOCIATED  PRESS, 
NEW  YORK,  APRIL  20,  1915 

[In  which  he  pleads  for  "America  First."] 

Mr.  President,  Gentlemen  of  the  Associated  Press , 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  am  deeply  gratified  by  the  gen 
erous  reception  you  have  accorded  me.  It  makes  me  look 
back  with  a  touch  of  regret  to  former  occasions  when  I 
have  stood  in  this  place  and  enjoyed  a  greater  liberty  than 
is  granted  me  to-day.  There  have  been  times  when  I  stood 
in  this  spot  and  said  what  I  really  thought,  and  I  can 
not  help  praying  that  those  days  of  indulgence  may  be 
accorded  me  again.  I  have  come  here  to-day,  of  course, 
somewhat  restrained  by  a  sense  of  responsibility  which  I 
cannot  escape.  For  I  take  the  Associated  Press  very  seri 
ously.  I  know  the  enormous  part  that  you  play  in  the 
affairs  not  only  of  this  country  but  of  the  world.  You  deal 
in  the  raw  material  of  opinion  and,  if  my  convictions  have 
any  validity,  opinion  ultimately  governs  the  world. 

It  is,  therefore,  of  very  serious  things  that  I  think  as 
I  face  this  body  of  men.  I  do  not  think  of  you,  however, 
as  members  of  the  Associated  Press.  I  do  not  think  of 
you  as  men  of  different  parties  or  of  different  racial  deri 
vations  or  of  different  religious  denominations.  I  want  to 
talk  to  you  as  to  my  fellow  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
for  there  are  serious  things  which  as  fellow  citizens  we 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

ought  to  consider.  The  times  behind  us,  gentlemen,  have 
been  difficult  enough;  the  times  before  us  are  likely  to  be 
more  difficult  still,  because,  whatever  may  be  said  about 
the  present  condition  of  the  world's  affairs,  it  is  clear  that 
they  are  drawing  rapidly  to  a  climax,  and  at  the  climax 
the  test  will  come,  not  only  for  the  nations  engaged  in 
the  present  colossal  struggle — it  will  come  to  them,  of 
course — but  the  test  will  come  for  us  particularly. 

Do  you  realize  that,  roughly  speaking,  we  are  the  only 
great  Nation  at  present  disengaged?  I  am  not  speaking, 
of  course,  with  disparagement  of  the  greatness  of  those 
nations  in  Europe  which  are  not  parties  to  the  present  war, 
but  I  am  thinking  of  their  close  neighborhood  to  it.  I  am 
thinking  how  their  lives  much  more  than  ours  touch  the 
very  heart  and  stuff  of  the  business,  whereas  we  have  roll 
ing  between  us  and  those  bitter  days  across  the  water  3,000 
miles  of  cool  and  silent  ocean.  Our  atmosphere  is  not  yet 
charged  with  those  disturbing  elements  which  must  perme 
ate  every  nation  of  Europe.  Therefore,  is  it  not  likely 
that  the  nations  of  the  world  will  some  day  turn  to  us  for 
the  cooler  assessment  of  the  elements  engaged?  I  am  not 
now  thinking  so  preposterous  a  thought  as  that  we  should 
sit  in  judgment  upon  them — no  nation  is  fit  to  sit  in  judg 
ment  upon  any  other  nation — but  that  we  shall  some  day 
have  to  assist  in  reconstructing  the  processes  of  peace. 
Our  resources  are  untouched;  we  are  more  and  more  be 
coming  by  the  force  of  circumstances  the  mediating  Nation 
of  the  world  in  respect  of  its  finance.  We  must  make  up 
our  minds  what  are  the  best  things  to  do  and  what  are 
the  best  ways  to  do  them.  We  must  put  our  money,  our 
energy,  our  enthusiasm,  our  sympathy  into  these  things, 
and  we  must  have  our  judgments  prepared  and  our  spirits 
chastened  against  the  coming  of  that  day. 

So  that  I  am  not  speaking  in  a  selfish  spirit  when  I  say 
that  our  whole  duty,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  is  summed 
up  in  this  motto,  "America  first."  Let  us  think  of  America 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

before  we  think  of  Europe,  in  order  that  America  may  be 
fit  to  be  Europe's  friend  when  the  day  of  tested  friendship 
comes.  The  test  of  friendship  is  not  now  sympathy  with 
the  one  side  or  the  other,  but  getting  ready  to  help  both 
sides  when  the  struggle  is  over.  The  basis  of  neutrality, 
gentlemen,  is  not  indifference;  it  is  not  self-interest.  The 
basis  of  neutrality  is  sympathy  for  mankind.  It  is  fair 
ness,  it  is  good  will,  at  bottom.  It  is  impartiality  of  spirit 
and  of  judgment.  I  wish  that  all  of  our  fellow  citizens 
could  realize  that.  There  is  in  some  quarters  a  disposition 
to  create  distempers  in  this  body  politic.  Men  are  even 
uttering  slanders  against  the  United  States,  as  if  to  excite 
her.  Men  are  saying  that  if  we  should  go  to  war  upon 
either  side  there  would  be  a  divided  America — an  abomi 
nable  libel  of  ignorance !  America  is  not  all  of  it  vocal 
just  now.  It  is  vocal  in  spots,  but  I,  for  one,  have  a 
complete  and  abiding  faith  in  that  great  silent  body  of 
Americans  who  are  not  standing  up  and  shouting  and  ex 
pressing  their  opinions  just  now,  but  are  waiting  to  find 
out  and  support  the  duty  of  America.  I  am  just  as  sure 
of  their  solidity  and  of  their  loyalty  and  of  their  unanimity, 
if  we  act  justly,  as  I  am  that  the  history  of  this  country 
has  at  every  crisis  and  turning  point  illustrated  this  great 
lesson. 

We  are  the  mediating  Nation  of  the  world.  I  do  not 
mean  that  we  undertake  not  to  rnind  our  own  business  and 
to  mediate  where  other  people  are  quarreling.  I  mean 
the  word  in  a  broader  sense.  We  are  compounded  of  the 
nations  of  the  world;  we  mediate  their  blood,  we  mediate 
their  traditions,  we  mediate  their  sentiments,  their  tastes, 
their  passions;  we  are  ourselves  compounded  of  those 
things.  We  are,  therefore,  able  to  understand  all  nations; 
we  are  able  to  understand  them  in  the  compound,  not  sep 
arately,  as  partisans,  but  unitedly  as  knowing  and  com 
prehending  and  embodying  them  all.  It  is  in  that  sense 
that  I  mean  that  America  is  a  mediating  Nation.  The 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

opinion  of  America,  the  action  of  America,  is  ready  to  turn, 
and  free  to  turn,  in  any  direction.  Did  you  ever  reflect 
upon  how  almost  every  other  nation  has  through  long  cen 
turies  been  headed  in  one  direction?  That  is  not  true  of 
the  United  States.  The  United  States  has  no  racial  mo 
mentum.  It  has  no  history  back  of  it  which  makes  it  run 
all  its  energies  and  all  its  ambitions  in  one  particular  direc 
tion.  And  America  is  particularly  free  in  this,  that  she 
has  no  hampering  ambitions  as  a  world  power.  We  do  not 
want  a  foot  of  anybody's  territory.  If  we  have  been  obliged 
by  circumstances,  or  have  considered  ourselves  to  be  obliged 
by  circumstances,  in  the  past,  to  take  territory  which  we 
otherwise  would  not  have  thought  of  taking,  I  believe 
I  am  right  in  saying  that  we  have  considered  it  our  duty 
to  administer  that  territory,  not  for  ourselves  but  for  the 
people  living  in  it,  and  to  put  this  burden  upon  our  con 
sciences — not  to  think  that  this  thing  is  ours  for  our  use, 
but  to  regard  ourselves  as  trustees  of  the  great  business 
for  those  to  whom  it  does  really  belong,  trustees  ready 
to  hand  it  over  to  the  cestui  que  trust  at  any  time  when 
the  business  seems  to  make  that  possible  and  feasible.  That 
is  what  I  mean  by  saying  we  have  no  hampering  ambitions. 
We  do  not  want  anything  that  does  not  belong  to  us.  Is 
not  a  nation  in  that  position  free  to  serve  other  nations, 
and  is  not  a  nation  like  that  ready  to  form  some  part  of 
the  assessing  opinion  of  the  world? 

My  interest  in  the  neutrality  of  the  United  States  is 
not  the  petty  desire  to  keep  out  of  trouble.  To  judge  by 
my  experience,  I  have  never  been  able  to  keep  out  of 
trouble.  I  have  never  looked  for  it,  but  I  have  always 
found  it.  I  do  not  want  to  walk  around  trouble.  If  any 
man  wants  a  scrap  that  is  an  interesting  scrap  and  worth 
while,  I  am  his  man.  I  warn  him  that  he  is  not  going  to 
draw  me  into  the  scrap  for  his  advertisement,  but  if  he  is 
looking  for  trouble  that  is  the  trouble  of  men  in  general 
and  I  can  help  a  little,  why,  then,  I  am  in  for  it.  But  I 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

am  interested  in  neutrality  because  there  is  something  so 
much  greater  to  do  than  fight;  there  is  a  distinction  wait 
ing  for  this  Nation  that  no  nation  has  ever  yet  got.  That 
is  the  distinction  of  absolute  self-control  and  self-mastery. 
Whom  do  you  admire  most  among  your  friends?  The  irri 
table  man?  The  man  out  of  whom  you  can  get  a  "rise" 
without  trying?  The  man  who  will  fight  at  the  drop  of 
the  hat,  whether  he  knows  what  the  hat  is  dropped  for 
or  not?  Don't  you  admire  and  don't  you  fear,  if  you 
have  to  contest  with  him,  the  self-mastered  man  who 
watches  you  with  calm  eye  and  comes  in  only  when  you 
have  carried  the  thing  so  far  that  you  must  be  disposed  of? 
That  is  the  man  you  respect.  That  is  the  man  who,  you 
know,  has  at  bottom  a  much  more  fundamental  and  ter 
rible  courage  than  the  irritable,  fighting  man.  Now,  I 
covet  for  America  this  splendid  courage  of  reserve  moral 
force,  and  I  wanted  to  point  out  to  you  gentlemen  simply 
this: 

There  is  news  and  news.  There  is  what  is  called  news 
from  Turtle  Bay  that  turns  out  to  be  falsehood,  at  any 
rate  in  what  it  is  said  to  signify,  but  which,  if  you  could 
get  the  Nation  to  believe  it  true,  might  disturb  our  equi 
librium  and  our  self-possession.  We  ought  not  to  deal  in 
stuff  of  that  kind.  We  ought  not  to  permit  that  sort  of 
thing  to  use  up  the  electrical  energy  of  the  wires,  because 
its  energy  is  malign,  its  energy  is  not  of  the  truth,  its 
energy  is  of  mischief.  It  is  possible  to  sift  truth.  I  have 
known  some  things  to  go  out  on  the  wires  as  true  when 
there  was  only  one  man  or  one  group  of  men  who  could  have 
told  the  originators  of  that  report  whether  it  was  true  or 
not,  and  they  were  not  asked  whether  it  was  true  or  not  for 
fear  it  might  not  be  true.  That  sort  of  report  ought  not 
to  go  out  over  the  wires.  There  is  generally,  if  not  always, 
somebody  who  knows  whether  the  thing  is  so  or  not,  and 
in  these  days,  above  all  other  days,  we  ought  to  take  par 
ticular  pains  to  resort  to  the  one  small  group  of  men,  or 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

to  the  one  man  if  there  be  but  one,  who  knows  whether 
those  things  are  true  or  not.  The  world  ought  to  know  the 
truth;  the  world  ought  not  at  this  period  of  unstable  equi 
librium  to  be  disturbed  by  rumor,  ought  not  to  be  disturbed 
by  imaginative  combinations  of  circumstances,  or,  rather, 
by  circumstances  stated  in  combination  which  do  not  belong 
in  combination.  You  gentlemen,  and  gentlemen  engaged 
like  you,  are  holding  the  balances  in  your  hand.  This 
unstable  equilibrium  rests  upon  scales  that  are  in  your 
hands.  For  the  food  of  opinion,  as  I  began  by  saying,  is 
the  news  of  the  day.  I  have  known  many  a  man  to  go 
off  at  a  tangent  on  information  that  was  not  reliable.  In 
deed,  that  describes  the  majority  of  men.  The  world  is 
held  stable  by  the  man  who  waits  for  the  next  day  to  find 
out  whether  the  report  was  true  or  not. 

We  cannot  afford,  therefore,  to  let  the  rumors  of  irre 
sponsible  persons  and  origins  get  into  the  atmosphere  of 
the  United  States.  We  are  trustees  for  what  I  venture 
to  say  is  the  greatest  heritage  that  any  nation  ever  had, 
the  love  of  justice  and  righteousness  and  human  liberty. 
For,  fundamentally,  those  are  the  things  to  which  America 
is  addicted  and  to  which  she  is  devoted.  There  are  groups 
of  selfish  men  in  the  United  States,  there  are  coteries, 
where  sinister  things  are  purposed,  but  the  great  heart  of 
the  American  people  is  just  as  sound  and  true  as  it  ever 
was.  And  it  is  a  single  heart;  it  is  the  heart  of  America. 
It  is  not  a  heart  made  up  of  sections  selected  out  of  other 
countries. 

What  I  try  to  remind  myself  of  every  day  when  I  am 
almost  overcome  by  perplexities,  what  I  try  to  remember, 
is  what  the  people  at  home  are  thinking  about.  I  try  to  put 
myself  in  the  place  of  the  man  who  does  not  know  all  the 
things  that  I  know  and  ask  myself  what  he  would  like  the 
policy  of  this  country  to  be.  Not  the  talkative  man,  not 
the  partisan  man,  not  the  man  who  remembers  first  that 
he  is  a  Republican  or  a  Democrat,  or  that  his  parents  were 

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German  or  English,  but  the  man  who  remembers  first  that 
the  whole  destiny  of  modern  affairs  centers  largely  upon 
his  being  an  American  first  of  all.  If  I  permitted  myself 
to  be  a  partisan  in  this  present  struggle,  I  would  be  un 
worthy  to  represent  you.  If  I  permitted  myself  to  forget 
the  people  who  are  not  partisans,  I  would  be  unworthy  to 
be  your  spokesman.  I  am  not  sure  that  I  am  worthy  to 
represent  you,  but  I  do  claim  this  degree  of  worthiness — 
that  before  everything  else  I  love  America. 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  SEVERAL  THOUSAND  FOREIGN-BORN 

CITIZENS,  AFTER  NATURALIZATION   CEREMONIES, 

AT  PHILADELPHIA,  MAY  10,  1915 

[Three  days  earlier  the  Lusitania  had  been  sunk  by  a  German 
submarine;  and  three  days  later  a  note  was  dispatched  to  Berlin 
demanding  disavowal.  But  in  his  speech  the  President  made  no 
specific  reference  to  the  crisis — although  his  declaration  that  a 
man  may  be  "too  proud  to  fight,"  and  a  nation  so  right  that  it 
does  not  need  to  use  force,  was  widely  understood  to  have  a  direct 
bearing  on  the  submarine  controversy.  This  address  and  one 
similar  in  scope,  which  will  be  found  on  page  290,  were  occasioned 
by  an  aroused  interest  on  the  part  of  aliens  in  American  citizen 
ship  because  of  controversies  with  belligerent  European  govern 
ments  over  neutral  rights.] 

Mr.  Mayor,  Fellow-Citizens: 

It  warms  my  heart  that  you  should  give  me  such  a  re 
ception;  but  it  is  not  of  myself  that  I  wish  to  think  to 
night,  but  of  those  who  have  just  become  citizens  of  the 
United  States. 

This  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  which  experiences 
this  constant  and  repeated  rebirth.  Other  countries  depend 
upon  the  multiplication  of  their  own  native  people.  This 
country  is  constantly  drinking  strength  out  of  new  sources 
by  the  voluntary  association  with  it  of  great  bodies  of 
strong  men  and  forward-looking  women  out  of  other  lands. 
And  so  by  the  gift  of  the  free  will  of  independent  people 


Woodrow    Wilson 

it  is  being  constantly  renewed  from  generation  to  genera 
tion  by  the  same  process  by  which  it  was  originally  created. 
It  is  as  if  humanity  had  determined  to  see  to  it  that  this 
great  Nation,  founded  for  the  benefit  of  humanity,  should 
not  lack  for  the  allegiance  of  the  people  of  the  world. 

You  have  just  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United 
States.  Of  allegiance  to  whom?  Of  allegiance  to  no  one, 
unless  it  be  God — certainly  not  of  allegiance  to  those  who 
temporarily  represent  this  great  Government.  You  have 
taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  a  great  ideal,  to  a  great  body 
of  principles,  to  a  great  hope  of  the  human  race.  You 
have  said,  "We  are  going  to  America  not  only  to  earn  a 
living,  not  only  to  seek  the  things  which  it  was  more  difficult 
to  obtain  where  we  were  born,  but  to  help  forward  the 
great  enterprises  of  the  human  spirit — to  let  men  know 
that  everywhere  in  the  world  there  are  men  who  will  cross 
strange  oceans  and  go  where  a  speech  is  spoken  which  is 
alien  to  them  if  they  can  but  satisfy  their  quest  for  what 
their  spirits  crave ;  knowing  that  whatever  the  speech  there 
is  but  one  longing  and  utterance  of  the  human  heart,  and 
that  is  for  liberty  and  justice."  And  while  you  bring  all 
countries  with  you,  you  come  with  a  purpose  of  leaving  all 
other  countries  behind  you — bringing  what  is  best  of  their 
spirit,  but  not  looking  over  your  shoulders  and  seeking  to 
perpetuate  what  you  intended  to  leave  behind  in  them.  I 
certainly  would  not  be  one  even  to  suggest  that  a  man  cease 
to  love  the  home  of  his  birth  and  the  nation  of  his  origin 
— these  things  are  very  sacred  and  ought  not  to  be  put 
out  of  our  hearts — but  it  is  one  thing  to  love  the  place  where 
you  were  born  and  it  is  another  thing  to  dedicate  yourself 
to  the  place  to  which  you  go.  You  cannot  dedicate  yourself 
to  America  unless  you  become  in  every  respect  and  with 
every  purpose  of  your  will  thorough  Americans.  You  can 
not  become  thorough  Americans  if  you  think  of  yourselves 
in  groups.  America  does  not  consist  of  groups.  A  man 
who  thinks  of  himself  as  belonging  to  a  particular  national 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

group  in  America  has  not  yet  become  an  American,  and 
the  man  who  goes  among  you  to  trade  upon  your  nationality 
is  no  worthy  son  to  live  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

My  urgent  advice  to  you  would  be,  not  only  always  to 
think  first  of  America,  but  always,  also,  to  think  first  of 
humanity.  You  do  not  love  humanity  if  you  seek  to  divide 
humanity  into  jealous  camps.  Humanity  can  be  welded 
together  only  by  love,  by  sympathy,  by  justice,  not  by 
jealousy  and  hatred.  I  am  sorry  for  the  man  who  seeks 
to  make  personal  capital  out  of  the  passions  of  his  fellow- 
men.  He  has  lost  the  touch  and  ideal  of  America,  for 
America  was  created  to  unite  mankind  by  those  passions 
which  lift  and  not  by  the  passions  which  separate  and  de 
base.  We  came  to  America,  either  ourselves  or  in  the  per 
sons  of  our  ancestors,  to  better  the  ideals  of  men,  to  make 
them  see  finer  things  than  they  had  seen  before,  to  get  rid 
of  the  things  that  divide  and  to  make  sure  of  the  things  that 
unite.  It  was  but  an  historical  accident  no  doubt  that 
this  great  country  was  called  the  "United  States";  yet  I 
am  very  thankful  that  it  has  that  word  "United"  in  its  title, 
and  the  man  who  seeks  to  divide  man  from  man,  group 
from  group,  interest  from  interest  in  this  great  Union  is 
striking  at  its  very  heart. 

It  is  a  very  interesting  circumstance  to  me,  in  thinking 
of  those  of  you  who  have  just  sworn  allegiance  to  this  great 
Government,  that  you  were  drawn  across  the  ocean  by  some 
beckoning  finger  of  hope,  by  some  belief,  by  some  vision 
of  a  new  kind  of  justice,  by  some  expectation  of  a  better 
kind  of  life.  No  doubt  you  have  been  disappointed  in 
some  of  us.  Some  of  us  are  very  disappointing.  No  doubt 
you  have  found  that  justice  in  the  United  States  goes  only 
with  a  pure  heart  and  a  right  purpose  as  it  does  everywhere 
else  in  the  world.  No  doubt  what  you  found  here  did  not 
seem  touched  for  you,  after  all,  with  the  complete  beauty 
of  the  ideal  which  you  had  conceived  beforehand.  But 
remember  this:  If  we  had  grown  at  all  poor  in  the  ideal, 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

you  brought  some  of  it  with  you.  A  man  does  not  go  out 
to  seek  the  thing  that  is  not  in  him.  A  man  does  not  hope 
for  the  thing  that  he  does  not  believe  in,  and  if  some  of  us 
have  forgotten  what  America  believed  in,  you,  at  any  rate, 
imported  in  your  own  hearts  a  renewal  of  the  belief.  That 
is  the  reason  that  I,  for  one,  make  you  welcome.  If  I 
have  in  any  degree  forgotten  what  America  was  intended 
for,  I  will  thank  God  if  you  will  remind  me.  I  was  born 
in  America.  You  dreamed  dreams  of  what  America  was 
to  be,  and  I  hope  you  brought  the  dreams  with  you.  No 
man  that  does  not  see  visions  will  ever  realize  any  high  hope 
or  undertake  any1  high  enterprise.  Just  because  you  brought 
dreams  with  you,  America  is  more  likely  to  realize  dreams 
such  as  you  brought.  You  are  enriching  us  if  you  come 
expecting  us  to  be  better  than  we  are. 

See,  my  friends,  what  that  means.  It  means  that  Ameri 
cans  must  have  a  consciousness  different  from  the  conscious 
ness  of  every  other  nation  in  the  world.  I  am  not  saying 
this  with  even  the  slightest  thought  of  criticism  of  other 
nations.  You  know  how  it  is  with  a  family.  A  family 
gets  centered  on  itself  if  it  is  not  careful  and  is  less  inter 
ested  in  the  neighbors  than  it  is  in  its  own  members.  So 
a  nation  that  is  not  constantly  renewed  out  of  new  sources 
is  apt  to  have  the  narrowness  and  prejuice  of  a  family; 
whereas,  America  must  have  this  consciousness,  that  on  all 
sides  it  touches  elbows  and  touches  hearts  with  all  the  na 
tions  of  mankind.  The  example  of  America  must  be  a 
special  example.  The  example  of  America  must  be  the 
example  not  merely  of  peace  because  it  will  not  fight,  but 
of  peace  because  peace  is  the  healing  and  elevating  influ 
ence  of  the  world  and  strife  is  not.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  man  being  too  proud  to  fight.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to  convince 
others  by  force  that  it  is  right. 

You  have  come  into  this  great  Nation  voluntarily  seeking 
something  that  we  have  to  give,  and  all  that  we  have  to  give 

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is  this:  We  cannot  exempt  you  from  work.  No  man  is 
exempt  from  work  anywhere  in  the  world.  We  cannot 
exempt  you  from  the  strife  and  the  heartbreaking  burden 
of  the  struggle  of  the  day — that  is  common  to  mankind 
everywhere;  we  cannot  exempt  you  from  the  loads  that 
you  must  carry.  We  can  only  make  them  light  by  the 
spirit  in  which  they  are  carried.  That  is  the  spirit  of  hope, 
it  is  the  spirit  of  liberty,  it  is  the  spirit  of  justice. 

When  I  was  asked,  therefore,  by  the  Mayor  and  the 
committee  that  accompanied  him  to  come  up  from  Wash 
ington  to  meet  this  great  company  of  newly  admitted  citi 
zens,  I  could  not  decline  the  invitation.  I  ought  not  to  be 
away  from  Washington,  and  yet  I  feel  that  it  has  renewed 
my  spirit  as  an  American  to  be  here.  In  Washington  men 
tell  you  so  many  things  every  day  that  are  not  so,  and  I 
like  to  come  and  stand  in  the  presence  of  a  great  body  of 
my  fellow-citizens,  whether  they  have  been  my  fellow-citi 
zens  a  long  time  or  a  short  time,  and  drink,  as  it  were,  out 
of  the  common  fountains  with  them  and  go  back  feeling 
what  you  have  so  generously  given  me — the  sense  of  your 
support  and  of  the  living  vitality  in  your  hearts  of  the  great 
ideals  which  have  made  America  the  hope  of  the  world. 


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Woodrow    Wilson 

PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    ADDRESS    AT    THE    PAN-AMERICAN 
FINANCIAL  CONFERENCE,  WASHINGTON,  MAY  24,  1915 

[The  development  of  trade  between  North  and  South  America — 
both  as  a  temporary  substitute  for  the  uncertain  markets  of  war 
ring  Europe  and  as  a  permanent  asset — had  been  widely  urged. 
Many  and  serious  were  the  technical  difficulties  cited  by  those  in 
a  position  to  know.  To  eliminate  some  of  these,  and  to  obtain 
mutual  knowledge  of  commercial  and  financial  methods,  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  (W.  G.  McAdoo)  called  a  conference  of  Pan- 
American  bankers  and  business  men.  Delegates  came  from  eigh 
teen  of  the  American  republics.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  Gentlemen  of  the  American  Republics, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

The  part  that  falls  to  me  this  morning  is  a  very  simple 
one,  but  a  very  delightful  one.  It  is  to  bid  you  a  very 
hearty  welcome  indeed  to  this  conference.  The  welcome 
is  the  more  hearty  because  we  are  convinced  that  a  confer 
ence  like  this  will  result  in  the  things  that  we  most  desire. 
I  am  sure  that  those  who  have  this  conference  in  charge 
have  already  made  plain  to  you  its  purpose  and  its  spirit. 
Its  purpose  is  to  draw  the  American  Republics  together  by 
bonds  of  common  interest  and  of  mutual  understanding; 
and  we  comprehend,  I  hope,  just  what  the  meaning  of  that 
is.  There  can  be  no  sort  of  union  of  interest  if  there  is  a 
purpose  of  exploitation  by  any  one  of  the  parties  to  a 
great  conference  of  this  sort.  The  basis  of  successful  com 
mercial  intercourse  is  common  interest,  not  selfish  interest. 
It  is  an  actual  interchange  of  services  and  oi:  values:  it  is 
based  upon  reciprocal  relations  and  not  selfish  relations. 
It  is  based  upon  those  things  upon  which  all  successful 
economic  intercourse  must  be  based,  because  selfishness 
breeds  suspicion;  suspicion,  hostility;  and  hostility,  failure. 
We  are  not,  therefore,  trying  to  make  use  of  each  other,  but 
we  are  trying  to  be  of  use  to  one  another. 

It  is  very  surprising  to  me,  it  is  even  a  source  of  morti 
fication,  that  a  conference  like  this  should  have  been  so  long 
delayed,  that  it  should  never  have  occurred  before,  that  it 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

should  have  required  a  crisis  of  the  world  to  show  the 
Americas  how  truly  they  were  neighbors  to  one  another. 
If  there  is  any  one  happy  circumstance,  gentlemen,  arising 
out  of  the  present  distressing  condition  of  the  world,  it  is 
that  it  has  revealed  us  to  one  another:  it  has  shown  us 
what  it  means  to  be  neighbors.  And  I  cannot  help  har 
boring  the  hope,  the  very  high  hope,  that  by  this  commerce 
of  minds  with  one  another,  as  well  as  commerce  in  goods, 
we  may  show  the  world  in  part  the  path  to  peace.  It  would 
be  a  very  great  thing  if  the  Americas  could  add  to  the  dis 
tinction  which  they  already  wear  this  of  showing  the  way 
to  peace,  to  permanent  peace. 

The  way  to  peace  for  us,  at  any  rate,  is  manifest.  It  is 
the  kind  of  rivalry  which  does  not  involve  aggression.  It 
is  the  knowledge  that  men  can  be  of  the  greatest  service  tc* 
one  another,  and  nations  of  the  greatest  service  to  one 
another,  when  the  jealousy  between  them  is  merely  a  jeal 
ousy  of  excellence,  and  when  the  basis  of  their  intercourse 
is  friendship.  There  is  only  one  way  in  which  we  wish  to 
take  advantage  of  you  and  that  is  by  making  better  goods, 
by  doing  the  things  that  we  seek  to  do  for  each  other  better, 
if  we  can,  than  you  do  them,  and  so  spurring  you  on,  if 
we  might,  by  so  handsome  a  jealousy  as  that  to  excel  us. 
I  am  so  keenly  aware  that  the  basis  of  personal  friendship 
is  this  competition  in  excellence,  that  I  am  perfectly  cer 
tain  that  this  is  the  only  basis  for  the  friendship  of  nations 
• — this  handsome  rivalry,  this  rivalry  in  which  there  is  no 
dislike,  this  rivalry  in  which  there  is  nothing  but  the  hope 
of  a  common  elevation  in  great  enterprises  which  we  can 
undertake  in  common. 

There  is  one  thing  that  stands  in  our  way  among  others 
— for  you  are  more  conversant  with  the  circumstances  than 
I  am;  the  thing  I  have  chiefly  in  mind  is  the  physical  lack 
of  means  of  communication,  the  lack  of  vehicles — the  lack 
of  ships,  the  lack  of  established  routes  of  trade — the  lack 
of  those  things  which  are  absolutely  necessary  if  we  are 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

to  have  true  commercial  and  intimate  commercial  relations 
with  one  another;  and  I  am  perfectly  clear  in  my  judgment 
that  if  private  capital  cannot  soon  enter  upon  the  adventure 
of  establishing  these  physical  means  of  communication,  the 
government  must  undertake  to  do  so.  We  cannot  indefi 
nitely  stand  apart  and  need  each  other  for  the  lack  of  what 
can  easily  be  supplied,  and  if  one  instrumentality  cannot 
supply  it,  then  another  must  be  found  which  will  supply  it. 
We  cannot  know  each  other  unless  we  see  each  other;  we 
cannot  deal  with  each  other  unless  we  communicate  with 
each  other.  So  soon  as  we  communicate  and  are  upon  a 
familiar  footing  of  intercourse,  we  shall  understand  one 
another,  and  the  bonds  between  the  Americas  will  be  such 
bonds  that  no  influence  that  the  world  may  produce  in  the 
future  will  ever  break  them. 

If  I  am  selfish  for  America,  I  at  least  hope  that  my 
selfishness  is  enlightened.  The  selfishness  that  hurts  the 
other  party  is  not  enlightened  selfishness.  If  I  were  acting 
upon  a  mere  ground  of  selfishness,  I  would  seek  to  benefit 
the  other  party  and  so  tie  him  to  myself;  so  that  even  if 
you  were  to  suspect  me  of  selfishness,  I  hope  you  will  also 
suspect  me  of  intelligence  and  of  knowing  the  only  safe 
way  for  the  establishment  of  the  things  which  we  covet, 
as  well  as  the  establishment  of  the  things  which  we  desire 
and  which  we  would  feel  honored  if  we  could  earn  and  win. 

I  have  said  these  things  because  they  will  perhaps  enable 
you  to  understand  how  far  from  formal  my  welcome  to  this 
body  is.  It  is  a  welcome  from  the  heart,  it  is  a  welcome 
from  the  head ;  it  is  a  welcome  inspired  by  what  I  hope  are 
the  highest  ambitions  of  those  who  live  in  these  two  great 
continents,  who  seek  to  set  an  example  to  the  world  in 
freedom  of  institutions,  freedom  of  trade,  and  intelligence 
of  mutual  service. 


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PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  THE  DAUGHTERS  OF  THE 

AMERICAN  REVOLUTION,  WASHINGTON, 

OCTOBER  11,  1915 

(On  the  Spirit  of  America) 

Madam  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

There  is  a  very  great  thrill  to  be  had  from  the  memories 
of  the  American  Revolution,  but  the  American  Revolution 
was  a  beginning,  not  a  consummation,  and  the  duty  laid 
upon  us  by  that  beginning  is  the  duty  of  bringing  the  things 
then  begun  to  a  noble  triumph  of  completion.  For  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  peculiarity  of  patriotism  in  America  is  that 
it  is  not  a  mere  sentiment.  It  is  an  active  principle  of 
conduct.  It  is  something  that  was  born  into  the  world,  not 
to  please  it,  but  to  regenerate  it.  It  is  something  that  was 
born  into  the  world  to  replace  systems  that  had  preceded 
it  and  to  bring  men  out  upon  a  new  plane  of  privilege.  The 
glory  of  the  men  whose  memories  you  honor  and  perpetuate 
is  that  they  saw  this  vision,  and  it  was  a  vision  of  the 
future.  It  was  a  vision  of  great  days  to  come  when  a  little 
handful  of  three  million  people  upon  the  borders  of  a  single 
sea  should  have  become  a  great  multitude  of  free  men  and 
women  spreading  across  a  great  continent,  dominating  the 
shores  of  two  oceans,  and  sending  West  as  well  as  East 
the  influences  of  individual  freedom.  .  .  . 

The  American  Revolution  was  the  birth  of  a  nation;  it 
was  the  creation  of  a  great  free  republic  based  upon  tradi 
tions  of  personal  liberty  which  theretofore  had  been  con 
fined  to  a  single  little  island,  but  which  it  was  purposed 
should  spread  to  all  mankind.  And  the  singular  fascina 
tion  of  American  history  is  that  it  has  been  a  process  of 
constant  re-creation,  of  making  over  again  in  each  genera 
tion  the  thing  which  was  conceived  at  first.  You  know  how 
peculiarly  necessary  that  has  been  in  our  case,  because 
America  has  not  grown  by  the  mere  multiplication  of  the 
original  stock.  It  is  easy  to  preserve  tradition  with  con- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

tinuity  of  blood;  it  is  easy  in  a  single  family  to  remember 
the  origins  of  the  race  and  the  purposes  of  its  organiza 
tion  ;  but  it  is  not  so  easy  when  that  race  is  constantly  being 
renewed  and  augmented  from  other  sources,  from  stocks 
that  did  not  carry  or  originate  the  same  principles. 

So  from  generation  to  generation  strangers  have  had  to 
be  indoctrinated  with  the  principles  of  the  American  fam 
ily,  and  the  wonder  and  the  beauty  of  it  all  has  been  that 
the  infection  has  been  so  generously  easy.  For  the  princi 
ples  of  liberty  are  united  with  the  principles  of  hope.  Every 
individual,  as  well  as  every  Nation,  wishes  to  realize  the 
best  thing  that  is  in  him,  the  best  thing  that  can  be  con 
ceived  out  of  the  materials  of  which  his  spirit  is  constructed. 
It  has  happened  in  a  way  that  fascinates  the  imagination 
that  we  have  not  only  been  augmented  by  additions  from 
outside,  but  that  we  have  been  greatly  stimulated  by  those 
additions.  Living  in  the  easy  prosperity  of  a  free  people, 
knowing  that  the  sun  had  always  been  free  to  shine  upon 
us  and  prosper  our  undertakings,  we  did  not  realize  how 
hard  the  task  of  liberty  is  and  how  rare  the  privilege  of 
liberty  is ;  but  men  were  drawn  out  of  every  climate  and  out 
of  every  race  because  of  an  irresistible  attraction  of  their 
spirits  to  the  American  ideal.  They  thought  of  America 
as  lifting,  like  that  great  statue  in  the  harbor  of  New  York, 
a  torch  to  light  the  pathway  of  men  to  the  things  that  they 
desire,  and  men  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  struggled  toward 
that  light  and  came  to  our  shores  with  an  eager  desire  to 
realize  it,  and  a  hunger  for  it  such  as  some  of  us  no  longer 
felt,  for  we  were  as  if  satiated  and  satisfied  and  were  indulg 
ing  ourselves  after  a  fashion  that  did  not  belong  to  the 
ascetic  devotion  of  the  early  devotees  of  those  great 
principles.  Strangers  came  to  remind  us  of  what  we  had 
promised  ourselves  and  through  ourselves  had  promised 
mankind.  .  .  . 

Now  we  have  come  to  a  time  of  special  stress  and  test. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  we  needed  more  clearly  to 

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conserve  the  principles  of  our  own  patriotism  than  this 
present  time.  The  rest  of  the  world  from  which  our  poli 
tics  were  drawn  seems  for  the  time  in  the  crucible  and  no 
man  can  predict  what  will  come  out  of  that  crucible.  We 
stand  apart,  unembroiled,  conscious  of  our  own  principles, 
conscious  of  what  we  hope  and  purpose,  so  far  as  our  pow 
ers  permit,  for  the  world  at  large,  and  it  is  necessary  that 
we  should  consolidate  the  American  principle.  Every  po 
litical  action,  every  social  action,  should  have  for  its  ob 
ject  in  America  at  this  time  to  challenge  the  spirit  of  Amer 
ica;  to  ask  that  every  man  and  woman  who  thinks  first  of 
America  should  rally  to  the  standards  of  our  life.  There 
have  been  some  among  us  who  have  not  thought  first  of 
America,  who  have  thought  to  use  the  might  of  America 
in  some  matter  not  of  America's  origination.  They  have 
forgotten  that  the  first  duty  of  a  nation  is  to  express 
its  own  individual  principles  in  the  action  of  the  family 
of  nations  and  not  to  seek  to  aid  and  abet  any  rival  or  con 
trary  ideal. 

.Neutrality  is  a  negative  word.  It  is  a  word  that  does 
not  express  what  America  ought  to  feel.  America  has  a 
heart  and  that  heart  throbs  with  all  sorts  of  intense  sym 
pathies,  but  America  has  schooled  its  heart  to  love  the 
things  that  America  believes  in  and  it  ought  to  devote  itself 
only  to  the  things  that  America  believes  in;  and,  believing 
that  America  stands  apart  in  its  ideals,  it  ought  not  to  allow 
itself  to  be  drawn,  so  far  as  its  heart  is  concerned,  into  any 
body's  quarrel.  Not  because  it  does  not  understand  the 
quarrel,  not  because  it  does  not  in  its  head  assess  the  merits 
of  the  controversy,  but  because  America  had  promised  the 
world  to  stand  apart  and  maintain  certain  principles  of  ac 
tion  which  are  grounded  in  law  and  in  justice.  We  are  not 
trying  to  keep  out  of  trouble;  we  are  trying  to  preserve 
the  foundations  upon  which  peace  can  be  rebuilt.  Peace 
can  be  rebuilt  only  upon  the  ancient  and  accepted  principles 
of  international  law,  only  upon  those  things  which  remind 

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nations  of  their  duties  to  each  other,  and,  deeper  than  that, 
of  their  duties  to  mankind  and  to  humanity. 

America  has  a  great  cause  which  is  not  confined  to  the 
American  continent.  It  is  the  cause  of  humanity  itself.  I 
do  not  mean  in  anything  that  I  say  even  to  imply  a  judg 
ment  upon  any  nation  or  upon  any  policy,  for  my  object 
here  this  afternoon  is  not  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  anybody 
but  ourselves  and  to  challenge  you  to  assist  all  of  us  who 
are  trying  to  make  America  more  than  ever  conscious  of  her 
own  principles  and  her  own  duty.  I  looked  forward  to  the 
necessity  in  every  political  agitation  in  the  years  which  are 
immediately  at  hand  of  calling  upon  every  man  to  declare 
himself,  where  he  stands.  Is  it  America  first  or  is  it  not? 

We  ought  to  be  very  careful  about  some  of  the  impressions 
that  we  are  forming  just  now.  There  is  too  general  an 
impression,  I  fear,  that  very  large  numbers  of  our  fellow- 
citizens  born  in  other  lands  have  not  entertained  with  suf 
ficient  intensity  and  affection  the  American  ideal.  But 
the  number  of  such  is,  I  am  sure,  not  large.  Those  who 
would  seek  to  represent  them  are  very  vocal,  but  they  are 
not  very  influential.  Some  of  the  best  stuff  of  America 
has  come  out  of  foreign  lands,  and  some  of  the  best  stuff 
in  America  is  in  the  men  who  are  naturalized  citizens  of 
the  United  States.  I  would  not  be  afraid  upon  the  test 
of  "America  first"  to  take  a  census  of  all  the  foreign-born 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  for  I  know  that  the  vast  ma 
jority  of  them  came  here  because  they  believed  in  America; 
and  their  belief  in  America  has  made  them  better  citizens 
than  some  people  who  were  born  in  America.  They  can 
say  that  they  have  bought  this  privilege  with  a  great  price. 
They  have  left  their  homes,  they  have  left  their  kindred, 
they  have  broken  all  the  nearest  and  dearest  ties  of  human 
life  in  order  to  come  to  a  new  land,  take  a  new  rootage, 
begin  a  new  life,  and  so  by  self-sacrifice  express  their  con 
fidence  in  a  new  principle ;  whereas,  it  cost  us  none  of  these 
things.  We  were  born  into  this  privilege;  we  were  rocked 

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and  cradled  in  it;  we  did  nothing  to  create  it;  and  it  is, 
therefore,  the  greater  duty  on  our  part  to  do  a  great  deal 
to  enhance  it  and  preserve  it.  I  am  not  deceived  as  to  the 
balance  of  opinion  among  the  foreign-born  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  but  I  am  in  a  hurry  for  an  opportunity  to 
have  a  line-up  and  let  the  men  who  are  thinking  first  of 
other  countries  stand  on  one  side  and  all  those  that  are  for 
America  first,  last,  and  all  the  time  on  the  other  side.  .  .  . 


PRESIDENT     WILSON     OUTLINES     THE     ADMINISTRATION'S 
PROGRAM   OF    PREPAREDNESS    FOR   NATIONAL 

DEFENSE 
(Address    at    the    Manhattan    Club,    New    York     City, 

November   4,    1915) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  submarine  controversy  with  Ger 
many — for  diplomatic  notes  see  pages  beginning  with  155 — 
had  long  before  this  passed  through  several  acute  phases; 
and  the  President  had  frankly  altered  his  views  regarding 
an  immediate  and  radical  strengthening  of  the  nation's 
means  for  defense.  He  had  called  upon  Secretary  Gar 
rison,  of  the  War  Department,  and  Secretary  Daniels,  of 
the  Navy,  to  prepare  plans  for  submission  to  Congress.  A 
month  before  the  session  began,  when  lie  was  to  make 
formal  recommendations,  the  President  made  public  the 
Administration's  program,  in  the  following  address:] 

Mr.  Toastmaster  and  Gentlemen: 

I  shall  assume  that  here  around  the  dinner  table  on  this 
memorable  occasion  our  talk  should  properly  turn  to  the 
wide  and  common  interests  which  are  most  in  our  thoughts, 
whether  they  be  the  interests  of  the  community  or  of  the 
nation. 

A  year  and  a  half  ago  our  thought  would  have  been  al 
most  altogether  of  great  domestic  questions.  They  are 


Woodrow    Wilson 

many  and  of  vital  consequence.  We  must  and  shall  address 
ourselves  to  their  solution  with  diligence,  firmness,  and  self- 
possession,  notwithstanding  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of 
a  world  disturbed  by  great  disaster  and  ablaze  with  terrible 
war;  but  our  thought  is  now  inevitably  of  new  things  about 
which  formerly  we  gave  ourselves  little  concern.  We  are 
thinking  now  chiefly  of  our  relations  with  the  rest  of  the 
world — not  our  commercial  relations — about  those  we  have 
thought  and  planned  always — but  about  our  political  rela 
tions,  our  duties  as  an  individual  and  independent  force  in 
the  world  to  ourselves,  our  neighbors,  and  the  world  itself. 
Our  principles  are  well  known.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
avow  them  again.  We  believe  in  political  liberty  and 
founded  our  great  government  to  obtain  it,  the  liberty  of 
men  and  of  peoples — of  men  to  choose  their  own  lives  and 
of  peoples  to  choose  their  own  allegiance.  Our  ambition, 
also,  all  the  world  has  knowledge  of.  It  is  not  only  to  be 
free  and  prosperous  ourselves,  but  also  to  be  the  friend  and 
thoughtful  partisan  of  those  who  are  free  or  who  desire 
freedom  the  world  over.  If  we  have  had  aggressive  pur 
poses  and  covetous  ambitions,  they  were  the  fruit  of  our 
thoughtless  youth  as  a  nation  and  we  have  put  them  aside. 
We  shall,  I  confidently  believe,  never  again  take  another 
foot  of  territory  by  conquest.  We  shall  never  in  any  cir 
cumstances  seek  to  make  an  independent  people  subject  to 
our  dominion;  because  we  believe,  we  passionately  believe, 
in  the  right  of  every  people  to  choose  their  own  allegiance 
and  be  free  of  masters  altogether.  For  ourselves  we  wish 
nothing  but  the  full  liberty  of  self-development;  and  with 
ourselves  in  this  great  matter  we  associate  all  the  peoples 
of  our  own  hemisphere.  We  wish  not  only  for  the  United 
States  but  for  them  the  fullest  freedom  of  independent 
growth  and  of  action,  for  we  know  that  throughout  this 
hemisphere  the  same  aspirations  are  everywhere  being 
worked  out,  under  diverse  conditions  but  with  the  same  im 
pulse  and  ultimate  object. 

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All  this  is  very  clear  to  us  and  will,  I  confidently  predict, 
become  more  and  more  clear  to  the  whole  world  as  the  great 
processes  of  the  future  unfold  themselves.  It  is  with  a  full 
consciousness  of  such  principles  and  such  ambitions  that  we 
are  asking  ourselves  at  the  present  time  what  our  duty  is 
with  regard  to  the  armed  force  of  the  Nation.  Within  a 
year  we  have  witnessed  what  we  did  not  believe  possible, 
a  great  European  conflict  involving  many  of  the  greatest 
nations  of  the  world.  The  influences  of  a  great  war  are 
everywhere  in  the  air.  All  Europe  is  embattled.  Force 
everywhere  speaks  out  with  a  loud  and  imperious  voice  in  a 
titanic  struggle  of  governments,  and  from  one  end  of  our 
own  dear  country  to  the  other  men  are  asking  one  another 
what  our  ov/n  force  is,  how  far  we  are  prepared  to  main 
tain  ourselves  against  any  interference  with  our  national 
action  or  development. 

In  no  man's  mind,  I  am  sure,  is  there  even  raised  the 
question  of  the  wilful  use  of  force  on  our  part  against  any 
nation  or  any  people.  No  matter  what  military  or  naval 
force  the  United  States  might  develop,  statesmen  through 
out  the  whole  world  might  rest  assured  that  we  were  gath 
ering  that  force,  not  for  attack  in  any  quarter,  not  for  ag 
gression  of  any  kind,  not  for  the  satisfaction  of  any  political 
or  international  ambition,  but  merely  to  make  sure  of  our 
own  security.  We  have  it  in  mind  to  be  prepared,  not  for 
war,  but  only  for  defense;  and  with  the  thought  constantly 
in  our  minds  that  the  principles  we  hold  most  dear  can  be 
achieved  by  the  slow  processes  of  history  only  in  the  kindly 
and  wholesome  atmosphere  of  peace,  and  not  by  the  use  of 
hostile  force.  The  mission  of  America  in  the  world  is  es 
sentially  a  mission  of  peace  and  good  will  among  men. 
She  has  become  the  home  and  asylum  of  men  of  all  creeds 
and  races.  Within  her  hospitable  borders  they  have  found 
homes  and  congenial  associations  and  freedom  and  a  wide 
and  cordial  welcome,  and  they  have  become  part  of  the 
bone  and  sinew  and  spirit  of  America  itself.  America 

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has  been  made  up  out  of  the  nations  of  the  world  and  is 
the  friend  of  the  nations  of  the  world. 

But  we  feel  justified  in  preparing  ourselves  to  vindicate 
our  right  to  independent  and  unmolested  action  by  making 
the  force  that  is  in  us  ready  for  assertion. 

And  we  know  that  we  can  do  this  in  a  way  that  will  be 
itself  an  illustration  of  the  American  spirit.  In  accordance 
with  our  American  traditions  we  want  and  shall  work  for 
only  an  army  adequate  to  the  constant  and  legitimate  uses 
of  times  of  international  peace.  But  we  do  want  to  feel 
that  there  is  a  great  body  of  citizens  who  have  received  at 
least  the  most  rudimentary  and  necessary  forms  of  military 
training;  that  they  will  be  ready  to  form  themselves  into  a 
fighting  force  at  the  call  of  the  nation ;  and  that  the  nation 
has  the  munitions  and  supplies  with  which  to  equip  them 
without  delay  should  it  be  necessary  to  call  them  into  ac 
tion.  We  wish  to  supply  them  with  the  training  they  need, 
and  we  think  we  can  do  so  without  calling  them  at  any  time 
too  long  away  from  their  civilian  pursuits. 

It  is  with  this  idea,  with  this  conception,  in  mind  that 
the  plans  have  been  made  which  it  will  be  my  privilege  to 
lay  before  the  Congress  at  its  next  session.  That  plan  calls 
for  only  such  an  increase  in  the  regular  Army  of  the  United 
States  £S  experience  has  proved  to  be  required  for  the  per 
formance  of  the  necessary  duties  of  the  Army  in  the  Phil 
ippines,  in  Hawaii,  in  Porto  Rico,  upon  the  borders  of  the 
United  States,  at  the  coast  fortifications,  and  at  the  mili 
tary  posts  of  the  interior.  For  the  rest,  it  calls  for  the 
training  within  the  next  three  years  of  a  force  of  400,000 
citizen  soldiers  to  be  raised  in  annual  contingents  of  133,- 
000,  who  would  be  asked  to  enlist  for  three  years  with  the 
colors  and  three  years  on  furlough,  but  who  during  their 
three  years  of  enlistment  with  the  colors  would  not  be  or 
ganized  as  a  standing  force  but  would  be  expected  merely 
to  undergo  intensive  training  for  a  very  brief  period  of  each 
year.  Their  training  would  take  place  in  immediate  associa- 

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tion  with  the  organized  units  of  the  regular  Army.  It  would 
have  no  touch  of  the  amateur  about  it,  neither  would  it 
exact  of  the  volunteers  more  than  they  could  give  in  any 
one  year  from  their  civilian  pursuits. 

And  none  of  this  would  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  in 
the  slightest  degree  to  supersede  or  subordinate  our  present 
serviceable  and  efficient  National  Guard.  On  the  contrary, 
the  National  Guard  itself  would  be  used  as  part  of  the 
instrumentality  by  which  training  would  be  given  the  citi 
zens  who  enlisted  under  the  new  conditions,  and  I  should 
hope  and  expect  that  the  legislation  by  which  all  this 
would  be  accomplished  would  put  the  National  Guard  itself 
upon  a  better  and  more  permanent  footing  than  it  has  ever 
been  before,  giving  it  not  only  the  recognition  which  it 
deserves,  but  a  more  definite  support  from  the  national  gov 
ernment  and  a  more  definite  connection  with  the  military 
organization  of  the  nation. 

What  we  all  wish  to  accomplish  is  that  the  forces  of 
the  nation  should  indeed  be  part  of  the  nation  and  not  a 
separate  professional  force,  and  the  chief  cost  of  the  sys 
tem  would  not  be  in  the  enlistment  or  in  the  training  of  the 
men,  but  in  the  providing  of  ample  equipment  in  case  it 
should  be  necessary  to  call  all  forces  into  the  field. 

Moreover,  it  has  been  American  policy  time  out  of  mind 
to  look  to  the  Navy  as  the  first  and  chief  line  of  defense. 
The  Navy  of  the  United  States  is  already  a  very  great  and 
efficient  force.  Not  rapidly,  but  slowly,  with  careful  at 
tention,  our  naval  force  has  been  developed  until  the  Navy 
of  the  United  States  stands  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
efficient  and  notable  of  the  modern  time.  All  that  is  needed 
in  order  to  bring  it  to  a  point  of  extraordinary  force  and 
efficiency  as  compared  with  the  other  navies  of  the  world 
is  that  we  should  hasten  our  pace  in  the  policy  we  have 
long  been  pursuing,  and  that  chief  of  all  we  should  have 
a  definite  policy  of  development,  not  made  from  year  to 
year  but  looking  well  into  the  future  and  planning  for  a 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

definite  consummation.  We  can  and  should  profit  in  all 
that  we  do  by  the  experience  and  example  that  have  been 
made  obvious  to  us  by  the  military  and  naval  events  of  the 
actual  present.  It  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  building  bat 
tleships  and  cruisers  and  submarines,  but  also  a  matter 
of  making  sure  that  we  shall  have  the  adequate  equipment 
of  men  and  munitions  and  supplies  for  the  vessels  we  build 
and  intend  to  build.  Part  of  our  problem  is  the  problem 
of  what  I  may  call  the  mobilization  of  the  resources  of  the 
nation  at  the  proper  time  if  it  should  ever  be  necessary  to 
mobilize  them  for  national  defense.  We  shall  study  ef 
ficiency  and  adequate  equipment  as  carefully  as  we  shall 
study  the  number  and  size  of  our  ships,  and  I  believe  that 
the  plans  already  in  part  made  public  by  the  Navy  Depart 
ment  are  plans  which  the  whole  nation  can  approve  with 
rational  enthusiasm. 

No  thoughtful  man  feels  any  panic  haste  in  this  matter. 
The  country  is  not  threatened  from  any  quarter.  She 
stands  in  friendly  relations  with  all  the  world.  Her  re 
sources  are  known  and  her  self-respect  and  her  capacity 
to  care  for  her  own  citizens  and  her  own  rights.  There 
is  no  fear  amongst  us.  Under  the  new-world  conditions 
we  have  become  thoughtful  of  the  things  which  all  reason 
able  men  consider  necessary  for  security  and  self-defense 
on  the  part  of  every  nation  confronted  with  the  great  en 
terprise  of  human  liberty  and  independence.  That  is  all. 

Is  the  plan  we  propose  sane  and  reasonable  and  suited  to 
the  needs  of  the  hour?  Does  it  not  conform  to  the  ancient 
traditions  of  America  ?  Has  any  better  plan  been  proposed 
than  this  programme  that  we  now  place  before  the  country? 
In  it  there  is  no  pride  of  opinion.  It  represents  the  best 
professional  and  expert  judgment  of  the  country.  But  I 
am  not  so  much  interested  in  programmes  as  I  am  in  safe 
guarding  at  every  cost  the  good  faith  and  honor  of  the 
country.  If  men  differ  with  me  in  this  vital  matter,  1 
shall  ask  them  to  make  it  clear  how  far  and  in  what  way 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

they  are  interested  in  making  the  permanent  interests  of 
the  country  safe  against  disturbance. 

In  the  fulfillment  of  the  programme  I  propose  I  shall 
ask  for  the  hearty  support  of  the  country,  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  America,  of  men  of  all  shades  of  political  opin 
ion.  For  my  position  in  this  important  matter  is  different 
from  that  of  the  private  individual  who  is  free  to  speak 
his  own  thoughts  and  to  risk  his  own  opinions  in  this  mat 
ter.  We  are  here  dealing  with  things  that  are  vital  to  the 
life  of  America  itself.  In  doing  this  I  have  tried  to  purge 
my  heart  of  all  personal  and  selfish  motives.  For  the  time 
being,  I  speak  as  the  trustee  and  guardian  of  a  nation's 
rights,  charged  with  the  duty  of  speaking  for  that  nation 
in  matters  involving  her  sovereignty — a  nation  too  big  and 
generous  to  be  exacting  and  yet  courageous  enough  to  de 
fend  its  rights  and  the  liberties  of  its  people  wherever  as 
sailed  or  invaded.  I  would  not  feel  that  I  was  discharging 
the  solemn  obligation  I  owe  the  country  were  I  not  to  speak 
in  terms  of  deepest  solemnity  of  the  urgency  and  necessity 
of  preparing  ourselves  to  guard  and  protect  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  our  people,  our  sacred  heritage  of  the  fathers 
who  struggled  to  make  us  an  independent  nation. 

The  only  thing  within  our  own  borders  that  has  given  us 
grave  concern  in  recent  months  has  been  that  voices  have 
been  raised  in  America  professing  to  be  the  voices  of  Ameri 
cans  which  were  not  indeed  and  in  truth  American,  but 
which  spoke  alien  sympathies,  which  came  from  men  who 
loved  other  countries  better  than  they  loved  America,  men 
who  were  partisans  of  other  causes  than  that  of  America 
and  had  forgotten  that  their  chief  and  only  allegiance  was 
to  the  great  government  under  which  they  live.  These 
voices  have  not  been  many,  but  they  have  been  loud  and 
very  clamorous.  .  .  .  The  chief  thing  necessary  is 
that  the  real  voice  of  the  nation  should  sound  forth  unmis 
takably  and  in  majestic  volume,  in  the  deep  unison  of  a 
common,  unhesitating  national  feeling.  .  .  . 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  THIRD  ANNUAL  MESSAGE 

(Delivered  before   Congress  in   Joint   Session, 

December  7,  1915.) 

[The  President  here  makes  his  formal  recommendations  looking 
toward  preparedness  for  national  defense.  Vast  naval  increases 
were  ultimately  granted  by  Congress,  but  the  "absolutely  impera 
tive"  proposal  of  a  citizen  army  was  not  pressed  for  passage — a 
fact  which  was  in  part  responsible  for  the  resignation  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  Mr.  Garrison,  on  February  10,  1916.  The  Presi 
dent's  remarks  about  Mexico  refer  to  the  withdrawal  of  American 
troops  from  Vera  Cruz  in  November,  1914,  and  to  the  recognition 
of  the  Carranza  government  in  October,  1915.  Three  months  after 
this  message  to  Congress  occurred  the  Villa  raid  on  Columbus, 
N.  M.J 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  CONGRESS:  Since  I  last  had  the 
privilege  of  addressing  you  on  the  state  of  the  Union  the 
war  of  nations  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  which  had 
then  only  begun  to  disclose  its  portentous  proportions,  has 
extended  its  threatening  and  sinister  scope  until  it  has 
swept  within  its  flame  some  portion  of  every  quarter  of  the 
globe,  not  excepting  our  own  hemisphere,  has  altered  the 
whole  face  of  international  affairs,  and  now  presents  a  pros 
pect  of  reorganization  and  reconstruction  such  as  states 
men  and  peoples  have  never  been  called  upon  to  attempt 
before. 

We  have  stood  apart,  studiously  neutral.  It  was  our 
manifest  duty  to  do  so.  Not  only  did  we  have  no  part  or 
interest  in  the  policies  which  seem  to  have  brought  the 
conflict  on ;  it  was  necessary,  if  a  universal  catastrophe  was 
to  be  avoided,  that  a  limit  should  be  set  to  the  sweep  of 
destructive  war  and  that  some  part  of  the  great  family  of 
nations  should  keep  the  processes  of  peace  alive,  if  only 
tor  prevent  collective  economic  ruin  and  the  breakdown 
throughout  the  world  of  the  industries  by  which  its  ^popu 
lations  are  fed  and  sustained.  It  was  manifestly  the  duty 
of  the  self-governed  nations  of  this  hemisphere  to  redress, 
if  possible,  the  balance  of  economic  loss  and  confusion  in 
the  other,  if  they  could  do  nothing  more.  In  the  day  of 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

readjustment  and  recuperation  we  earnestly  hope  and  be 
lieve  that  they  can  be  of  infinite  service. 

In  this  neutrality,  to  which  they  were  bidden  not  only  by 
their  separate  life  and  their  habitual  detachment  from  the 
politics  of  Europe  but  also  by  a  clear  perception  of  inter 
national  duty,  the  states  of  America  have  become  conscious 
of  a  new  and  more  vital  community  of  interest  and  moral 
partnership  in  affairs,  more  clearly  conscious  of  the  many 
common  sympathies  and  interests  and  duties  which  bid  them 
stand  together. 

There  was  a  time  in  the  early  days  of  our  own  great 
nation  and  of  the  republics  fighting  their  way  to  independ 
ence  in  Central  and  South  America  when  the  government 
of  the  United  States  looked  upon  itself  as  in  some  sort  the 
guardian  of  the  republics  to  the  south  of  her  as  against  any 
encroachments  or  efforts  at  political  control  from  the  other 
side  of  the  water;  felt  it  its  duty  to  play  the  part  even 
without  invitation  from  them ;  and  I  think  that  we  can  claim 
that  the  task  was  undertaken  with  a  true  and  disinterested 
enthusiasm  for  the  freedom  of  the  Americas  and  the  unmo 
lested  self-government  of  her  independent  peoples.  But  it 
was  always  difficult  to  maintain  such  a  role  without  offence 
to  the  pride  of  the  peoples  whose  freedom  of  action  we 
sought  to  protect,  and  without  provoking  serious  miscon 
ceptions  of  our  motives,  and  every  thoughtful  man  of  af 
fairs  must  welcome  the  altered  circumstances  of  the  new 
day  in  whose  light  we  now  stand,  when  there  is  no  claim  of 
guardianship  or  thought  of  wards,  but,  instead,  a  full  and 
honorable  association  as  of  partners  between  ourselves  and 
our  neighbors.,  in  the  interest  of  all  America,  north  and 
south.  Our  concern  for  the  independence  and  prosperity 
of  the  states  of  Central  and  South  America  is  not  altered. 
We  retain  unabated  the  spirit  that  has  inspired  us  through 
out  the  whole  life  of  our  government  and  which  was  so 
frankly  put  into  words  by  President  Monroe.  We  still  mean 
always  to  make  a  common  cause  of  national  independence 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

and  of  political  liberty  in  America.  But  that  purpose  is 
now  better  understood  so  far  as  it  concerns  ourselves.  It  is 
known  not  to  be  a  selfish  purpose.  It  is  known  to  have  in 
it  no  thought  of  taking  advantage  of  any  government  in 
this  hemisphere  or  playing  its  political  fortunes  for  our 
own  benefit.  All  the  governments  of  America  stand,  so  far 
as  we  are  concerned,  upon  a  footing  of  genuine  equality  and 
unquestioned  independence. 

We  have  been  put  to  the  test  in  the  case  of  Mexico,  and 
we  have  stood  the  test.  Whether  we  have  benefited  Mexico 
by  the  course  we  have  pursued  remains  to  be  seen.  Her 
fortunes  are  in  her  own  hands.  But  we  have  at  least 
proved  that  we  will  not  take  advantage  of  her  in  her  dis 
tress  and  undertake  to  impose  upon  her  an  order  and  gov 
ernment  of  our  own  choosing.  Liberty  is  often  a  fierce  and 
intractable  thing,  to  which  no  bounds  can  be  set,  and  to 
which  no  bounds  of  a  few  men's  choosing  ought  ever  to  be 
set.  Every  American  who  has  drunk  at  the  true  fountains 
of  principle  and  tradition  must  subscribe  without  reserva 
tion  to  the  high  doctrine  of  the  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights, 
which  in  the  great  days  in  which  our  government  was  set  up 
was  everywhere  amongst  us  accepted  as  the  creed  of  free 
men.  That  doctrine  is,  "That  government  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  instituted  for  the  common  benefit,  protection,  and  se 
curity  of  the  people,  nation,  or  community";  that  "of  all 
the  various  modes  and  forms  of  government,  that  is  the  best 
which  is  capable  of  producing  the  greatest  degree  of  happi 
ness  and  safety,  and  is  most  effectually  secured  against  the 
danger  of  .maladministration ;  and  that,  when  any  govern 
ment  shall  be  found  inadequate  or  contrary  to  these  pur 
poses,  a  majority  of  the  community  hath  an  indubitable, 
inalienable,  and  indefeasible  right  to  reform,  alter,  or  abol 
ish  it,  in  such  manner  as  shall  be  judged  most  conducive 
to  the  public  weal."  We  have  unhesitatingly  applied  that 
heroic  principle  to  the  case  of  Mexico,  and  now  hopefully 
await  the  rebirth  of  the  troubled  Republic,  which  had  so 

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much  of  which  to  purge  itself  and  so  little  sympathy  from 
any  outside  quarter  in  the  radical  but  necessary  process. 
We  will  aid  and  befriend  Mexico,  but  we  will  not  coerce 
her;  and  our  course  with  regard  to  her  ought  to  be  sufficient 
proof  to  all  America  that  we  seek  no  political  suzerainty  or 
selfish  control. 

The  moral  is,  that  the  states  of  America  are  not  hostile 
rivals,  but  cooperating  friends,  and  that  their  growing 
sense  of  community  of  interest,  alike  in  matters  political 
and  in  matters  economic,  is  likely  to  give  them  a  new  sig 
nificance  as  factors  in  international  affairs  and  in  the  polit 
ical  history  of  the  world.  It  presents  them  as  in  a  very 
deep  and  true  sense  a  unit  in  world  affairs,  spiritual  part 
ners,  standing  together  because  thinking  together,  quick 
with  common  sympathies  and  common  ideals.  Separated 
they  are  subject  to  all  the  cross-currents  of  the  confused 
politics  of  a  world  of  hostile  rivalries;  united  in  spirit  and 
purpose  they  cannot  be  disappointed  of  their  peaceful 
destiny. 

This  is  Pan-Americanism.  It  has  none  of  the  spirit  of 
empire  in  it.  It  is  the  embodiment,  the  effectual  embodi 
ment,  of  the  spirit  of  law  and  independence  and  liberty  and 
mutual  service. 

A  very  notable  body  of  men  recently  met  in  the  City  of 
Washington,  at  the  invitation  and  as  the  guests  of  this 
Government,  whose  deliberations  are  likely  to  be  looked 
back  to  as  marking  a  memorable  turning  point  in  the  his 
tory  of  America.  They  were  representative  spokesmen 
of  the  several  independent  states  of  this  hemisphere  and 
were  assembled  to  discuss  the  financial  and  commercial  re 
lations  of  the  republics  of  the  two  continents  which  nature 
and  political  fortune  have  so  intimately  linked  together. 
I  earnestly  recommend  to  your  perusal  the  reports  of  their 
proceedings  and  of  the  actions  of  their  committees.  You 
will  get  from  them,  I  think,  a  fresh  conception  of  the  ease 
an(I  intelligence  and  advantage  with  which  Americans  of 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

both  continents  may  draw  together  in  practical  cooperation 
and  of  what  the  material  foundations  of  this  hopeful  part 
nership  of  interest  must  consist, — of  how  we  should  build 
them  and  of  how  necessary  it  is  that  we  should  hasten  their 
building. 

There  is,  I  venture  to  point  out,  an  especial  significance 
just  now  attaching  to  this  whole  matter  of  drawing  the 
Americas  together  in  bonds  of  honorable  partnership  and 
mutual  advantage  because  of  the  economic  readjustments 
which  the  world  must  inevitably  witness  within  the  next 
generation,  when  peace  shall  have  at  last  resumed  its  health 
ful  tasks.  In  the  performance  of  these  tasks  I  believe  the 
Americas  to  be  destined  to  play  their  parts  together.  I 
am  interested  to  fix  your  attention  on  this  prospect  now 
because  unless  you  take  it  within  your  view  and  permit  the 
full  significance  of  it  to  command  your  thought  I  can  not 
find  the  right  light  in  which  to  set  forth  the  particular 
matter  that  lies  at  the  very  front  of  my  whole  thought  as  I 
address  you  to-day.  I  mean  national  defense. 

No  one  who  realily  comprehends  the  spirit  of  the  great 
people  for  whom  we  are  appointed  to  speak  can  fail  to  per 
ceive  that  their  passion  is  for  peace,  their  genius  best  dis 
played  in  the  practice  of  the  arts  of  peace.  Great  democ 
racies  are  not  belligerent.  They  do  not  seek  or  desire  war. 
Their  thought  is  of  individual  liberty  and  of  the  free  labor 
that  supports  life  and  the  uncensored  thought  that  quickens 
it.  Conquest  and  dominion  are  not  in  our  reckoning,  or 
agreeable  to  our  principles.  But  just  because  we  demand 
unmolested  development  and  the  undisturbed  government 
of  our  own  lives  upon  our  own  principles  of  right  and  lib 
erty,  we  resent,  from  whatever  quarter  it  may  come,  the 
aggression  we  ourselves  will  not  practice.  We  insist  upon 
security  in  prosecuting  our  self-chosen  lines  of  national 
development.  We  do  more  than  that.  We  demand  it  also 
for  others.  We  do  not  confine  our  enthusiasm  for  individual 
liberty  and  free  national  development  to  the  incidents  and 

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movements  of  affairs  which  affect  only  ourselves.  We  feel 
it  wherever  there  is  a  people  that  tries  to  walk  in  these 
difficult  paths  of  independence  and  right.  From  the  first 
we  have  made  common  cause  with  all  partisans  of  liberty 
on  this  side  of  the  sea,  and  have  deemed  it  as  important 
that  our  neighbors  should  be  free  from  all  outside  domina 
tion  as  that  we  ourselves  should  be;  have  set  America  aside 
as  a  whole  for  the  uses  of  independent  nations  and  polit 
ical  freemen. 

Out  of  such  thoughts  grow  all  our  policies.  We  regard 
war  merely  as  a  means  of  asserting  the  rights  of  a  people 
against  aggression.  And  we  are  as  fiercely  jealous  of  coer 
cive  or  dictatorial  power  within  our  own  nation  as  of  ag 
gression  from  without.  We  will  not  maintain  a  standing 
army  except  for  uses  which  are  as  necessary  in  times  of 
peace  as  in  times  of  war ;  and  we  shall  always  see  to  it  that 
our  military  peace  establishment  is  no  larger  than  is  actually 
and  continuously  needed  for  the  uses  of  days  in  which  no 
enemies  move  against  us.  But  we  do  believe  in  a  body  of 
free  citizens  ready  and  sufficient  to  take  care  of  themselves 
and  of  the  governments  which  they  have  set  up  to  serve 
them.  In  our  constitutions  themselves  we  have  commanded 
that  "the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear  arms  shall 
not  be  infringed/'  and  our  confidence  has  been  that  our 
safety  in  times  of  danger  would  lie  in  the  rising  of  the  na 
tion  to  take  care  of  itself,  as  the  farmers  rose  at  Lexington. 

But  war  has  never  been  a  mere  matter  of  men  and  guns. 
It  is  a  thing  of  disciplined  might.  If  our  citizens  are  ever 
to  fight  effectively  upon  a  sudden  summons,  they  must 
know  how  modern  fighting  is  done,  and  what  to  do  when 
the  summons  comes  to  render  themselves  immediately  avail 
able  and  immediately  effective.  And  the  government  must 
be  their  servant  in  this  matter,  must  supply  them  with  the 
training  they  need  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  of  it. 
The  military  arm  of  their  government,  which  they  will  not 
allow  to  direct  them,  they  may  properly  use  to  serve  them 

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Woodroiv    Wilson 

and  make  their  independence  secure, — and  not  their  own 
independence  merely  but  the  rights  also  of  those  with 
whom  they  have  made  common  cause,  should  they  also  be 
put  in  jeopardy.  They  must  be  fitted  to  play  the  great 
role  in  the  world,  and  particularly  in  this  hemisphere,  which 
they  are  qualified  by  principle  and  by  chastened  ambition 
to  play. 

It  is  with  these  ideals  in  mind  that  the  plans  of  the  De 
partment  of  War  for  more  adequate  national  defense  were 
conceived  which  will  be  laid  before  you,  and  which  I  urge 
you  to  sanction  and  put  into  effect  as  soon  as  they  can  be 
properly  scrutinized  and  discussed.  They  seem  to  me  the 
essential  first  steps,  and  they  seem  to  me  for  the  present 
sufficient. 

They  contemplate  an  increase  of  the  standing  force  of  the 
regular  army  from  its  present  strength  of  five  thousand 
and  twenty-three  officers  and  one  hundred  and  two  thou 
sand  nine  hundred  and  eighty-five  enlisted  men  of  all  serv 
ices  to  a  strength  of  seven  thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  officers  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seven  enlisted  men,  or  141,843,  all  told,  all 
services,  rank  and  file,  by  the  addition  of  fifty-two  compa 
nies  of  coast  artillery,  fifteen  companies  of  engineers,  ten 
regiments  of  infantry,  four  regiments  of  field  artillery, 
;and  four  aero  squadrons,  besides  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
officers  required  for  a  great  variety  of  extra  service,  espe 
cially  the  all-important  duty  of  training  the  citizen  force 
of  which  I  shall  presently  speak,  seven  hundred  and  ninety- 
two  non-commissioned  officers  for  service  in  drill,  recruit 
ing  and  the  like,  and  the  necessary  quota  of  enlisted  men 
for  the  Quartermaster  Corps,  the  Hospital  Corps,  the  Ord 
nance  Department,  and  other  similar  auxiliary  services. 
These  are  the  additions  necessary  to  render  the  army  ade 
quate  for  its  present  duties,  duties  which  it  has  to  perform 
not  only  upon  our  own  continental  coasts  and  borders  and 
at  our  interior  army  posts,  but  also  in  the  Philippines,  in 

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the  Hawaiian  Islands,  at  the  Isthmus,  and  in  Porto  Rico. 

By  way  of  making  the  country  ready  to  assert  some 
part  of  its  real  power  promptly  and  upon  a  larger  scale, 
should  occasion  arise,  the  plan  also  contemplates  supple 
menting  the  army  by  a  force  of  four  hundred  thousand 
disciplined  citizens,  raised  in  increments  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  thousand  a  year  throughout  a  period  of 
three  years.  This  it  is  proposed  to  do  by  a  process  of  en 
listment  under  which  the  serviceable  men  of  the  country 
would  be  asked  to  bind  themselves  to  serve  with  the  colors 
for  purposes  of  training  for  short  periods  throughout  three 
years,  and  to  come  to  the  colors  at  call  at  any  time  through 
out  an  additional  "furlough"  period  of  three  years.  This 
force  of  four  hundred  thousand  men  would  be  provided 
with  personal  accoutrements  as  fast  as  enlisted  and  their 
equipment  for  the  field  made  ready  to  be  supplied  at  any 
time.  They  would  be  assembled  for  training  at  stated  in 
tervals  at  convenient  places  in  association  with  suitable 
units  of  the  regular  army.  Their  period  of  annual  train 
ing  would  not  necessarily  exceed  two  months  in  the  year. 

It  would  depend  upon  the  patriotic  feeling  of  the 
younger  men  of  the  country  whether  they  responded  to 
such  a  call  to  service  or  not.  It  would  depend  upon  the 
patriotic  spirit  of  the  employers  of  the  country  whether 
they  made  it  possible  for  the  younger  men  in  their  employ 
to  respond  under  favorable  conditions  or  not.  I,  for  one, 
do  not  doubt  the  patriotic  devotion  either  of  our  young 
men  or  of  those  who  give  them  employment, — those  for 
whose  benefit  and  protection  they  would  in  fact  enlist. 
I  would  look  forward  to  the  success  of  such  an  experiment 
with  entire  confidence. 

At  least  so  much  by  way  of  preparation  for  defense  seems 
to  me  to  be  absolutely  imperative  now.  We  cannot  do  less. 

The  programme  which  will  be  laid  before  you  by  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy  is  similarly  conceived.  It  involves  only 
&  shortening  of  the  time  within  which  plans  long  matured 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

shall  be  carried  out;  but  it  does  make  definite  and  explicit 
a  programme  which  has  heretofore  been  only  implicit,  held 
in  the  minds  of  the  Committees  on  Naval  Affairs  and  dis 
closed  in  the  debates  of  the  two  Houses  but  nowhere  formu 
lated  or  formally  adopted.  It  seems  to  me  very  clear  that 
it  will  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  country  for  the  Congress 
to  adopt  a  comprehensive  plan  for  putting  the  navy  upon 
a  final  footing  of  strength  and  efficiency  and  to  press  that 
plan  to  completion  within  the  next  five  years.  We  have  al 
ways  looked  to  the  navy  of  the  country  as  our  first  and 
chief  line  of  defense;  we  have  always  seen  it  to  be  our 
manifest  course  of  prudence  to  be  strong  on  the  seas.  Year 
by  year  we  have  been  creating  a  navy  which  now  ranks 
very  high  indeed  among  the  navies  of  the  maritime  nations. 
We  should  now  definitely  determine  how  we  shall  complete 
what  we  have  begun,  and  how  soon. 

The  programme  to  be  laid  before  you  contemplates  the 
construction  within  five  years  of  ten  battleships,  six  battle- 
cruisers,  ten  scout-cruisers,  fifty  destroyers,  fifteen  fleet 
submarines,  eighty-five  coast  submarines,  four  gunboats, 
one  hospital  ship,  two  ammunition  ships,  two  fuel-oil  ships, 
and  one  repair  ship.  It  is  proposed  that  of  this  number 
we  shall  the  first  year  provide  for  the  construction  of  two 
battleships,  two  battle-cruisers,  three  scout-cruisers,  fifteen 
destroyers,  five  fleet  submarines,  twenty-five  coast  sub 
marines,  two  gunboats,  and  one  hospital  ship;  the  second 
year,  two  battleships,  one  scout-cruiser,  ten  destroyers,  four 
submarines,  fifteen  coast  submarines,  one  gunboat,  and  one 
fuel-oil  ship;  the  third  year,  two  battleships,  one  battle- 
cruiser,  two  scout-cruisers,  five  destroyers,  two  fleet  sub 
marines,  and  fifteen  coast  submarines;  the  fourth  year,  two 
battleships,  two  battle-cruisers,  two  scout-cruisers,  ten  de 
stroyers,  two  fleet  submarines,  fifteen  coast  submarines,  one 
ammunition  ship,  and  one  fuel-oil  ship;  and  the  fifth  year, 
two  battleships,  one  battle-cruiser,  two  scout-cruisers,  ten 
destroyers,  two  fleet  submarines^  fifteen  coast  sub- 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

narines,  one  gunboat,  one  ammunition  ship,  and  one  repair 
ship. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  is  asking  also  for  the  imme 
diate  addition  to  the  personnel  of  the  navy  of  seven  thou 
sand  five  hundred  sailors,  twenty-five  hundred  apprentice 
seamen,  and  fifteen  hundred  marines.  This  increase  would 
be  sufficient  to  care  for  the  ships  which  are  to  be  completed 
within  the  fiscal  year  1917  and  also  for  the  number  of  men 
which  must  be  put  in  training  to  man  the  ships  which  will 
be  completed  early  in  1918.  It  is  also  necessary  that  the 
number  of  midshipmen  at  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis 
should  be  increased  by  at  least  three  hundred  in  order  that 
the  force  of  officers  should  be  more  rapidly  added  to;  and 
authority  is  asked  to  appoint,  for  engineering  duties  only, 
approved  graduates  of  engineering  colleges,  and  for  service 
in  the  aviation  corps  a  certain  number  of  men  taken  from 
civil  life. 

If  this  full  programme  should  be  carried  out  we  should 
have  built  or  building  in  1921,  according  to  the  estimates 
of  survival  and  standards  of  classification  followed  by  the 
General  Board  of  the  Department,  an  effective  navy  con 
sisting  of  twenty-seven  battleships,  of  the  first  line,  six 
battle-cruisers,  twenty-five  battleships  of  the  second  line, 
ten  armored  cruisers,  thirteen  scout-cruisers,  five  first-class 
cruisers,  three  second-class  cruisers,  ten  third-class  cruis 
ers,  one  hundred  and  eight  destroyers,  eighteen  fleet  sub 
marines,  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  coast  submarines,  six 
monitors,  twenty  gunboats,  four  supply  ships,  fifteen  fuel 
ships,  four  transports,  three  tenders  to  torpedo  vessels, 
eight  vessels  of  special  types,  and  two  ammunition  ships. 
This  would  be  a  navy  fitted  to  our  needs  and  worthy  of  our 
traditions. 

But  armies  and  instruments  of  war  are  only  part  of 
what  has  to  be  considered  if  we  are  to  provide  for  the  su 
preme  matter  of  national  self-sufficiency  and  security  in  all 
its  aspects.  There  are  other  great  matters  which  will  be 


Woodrow    Wilson 

thrust  upon  our  attention  whether  we  will  or  not.  There 
is,  for  example,  a  very  pressing  question  of  trade  and 
shipping  involved  in  this  great  problem  of  national  ade 
quacy.  It  is  necessary  for  many  weighty  reasons  of  na 
tional  efficiency  and  development  that  we  should  have  a 
great  merchant  marine.  The  great  merchant  fleet  we  once 
used  to  make  us  rich,  that  great  body  of  sturdy  sailors  who 
used  to  carry  our  flag  into  every  sea,  and  who  were  the 
pride  and  often  the  bulwark  of  the  nation,  we  have  almost 
driven  out  of  existence  by  inexcusable  neglect  and  indif 
ference  and  by  a  hopelessly  blind  and  provincial  policy  of 
so-called  economic  protection.  It  is  high  time  we  repaired 
our  mistake  and  resumed  our  commercial  independence  on 
the  seas. 

For  it  is  a  question  of  independence.  If  other  nations 
go  to  war  or  seek  to  hamper  each  other's  commerce,  our 
merchants,  it  seems,  are  at  their  mercy,  to  do  with  as  they 
please.  We  must  use  their  ships,  and  use  them  as  they  de 
termine.  We  have  not  ships  enough  of  our  own.  We  can 
not  handle  our  own  commerce  on  the  seas.  Our  independ 
ence  is  provincial,  and  is  only  on  land  and  within  our  own 
borders.  We  are  not  likely  to  be  permitted  to  use  even  the 
ships  of  other  nations  in  rivalry  of  their  own  trade,  and 
are  without  means  to  extend  our  commerce  even  where  the 
doors  are  wide  open  and  our  goods  desired.  Such  a  situa 
tion  is  not  to  be  endured.  It  is  of  capital  importance  not 
only  that  the  United  States  should  be  its  own  carrier  on  the 
seas  and  enjoy  the  economic  independence  which  only  an 
adequate  merchant  marine  would  give  it,  but  also  that  the 
American  hemisphere  as  a  whole  should  enjoy  a  like  inde 
pendence  and  self-sufficiency,  if  it  is  not  to  be  drawn  into 
the  tangle  of  European  affairs.  Without  such  independ 
ence  the  whole  question  of  our  political  unity  and  self- 
determination  is  very  seriously  clouded  and  complicated 
indeed. 

Moreover,  we  can  develop  no  true  or  effective  American 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

policy  without  ships  of  our  own, — not  ships  of  war,  but 
ships  of  peace,  carrying  goods  and  carrying  much  more; 
creating  friendships  and  rendering  indispensable  services 
to  all  interests  on  this  side  the  water.  They  must  move 
constantly  back  and  forth  between  the  Americas.  They 
are  the  only  shuttles  that  can  weave  the  delicate  fabric  of 
sympathy,  comprehension,  .confidence,  and  mutual  depend 
ence  in  which  we  wish  to  clothe  our  policy  of  America  for 
Americans. 

The  task  of  building  up  an  adequate  merchant  marine 
for  America  private  capital  must  ultimately  undertake  and 
achieve,  as  it  has  undertaken  and  achieved  every  other  like 
task  amongst  us  in  the  past,  with  admirable  enterprise,  in 
telligence,  and  vigor;  and  it  seems  to  me  a  manifest  dictate 
of  wisdom  that  we  should  promptly  remove  every  legal  ob 
stacle  that  may  stand  in  the  way  of  this  much-to-be-desired 
revival  of  our  old  independence  and  should  facilitate  in 
every  possible  way  the  building,  purchase,  and  American 
registration  of  ships.  But  capital  cannot  accomplish  this 
great  task  of  a  sudden.  It  must  embark  upon  it  by  de 
grees,  as  the  opportunities  of  trade  develop.  Something 
must  be  done  at  once;  done  to  open  routes  and  develop  op 
portunities  where  they  are  as  yet  undeveloped;  done  to 
open  the  arteries  of  trade  where  the  currents  have  not  yet 
learned  to  run, — especially  between  the  two  American  con 
tinents,  where  they  are,  singularly  enough,  yet  to  be  created 
and  quickened;  and  it  is  evident  that  only  the  government 
can  undertake  such  beginnings  and  assume  the  initial  finan 
cial  risks.  When  the  risk  has  passed  and  private  capital 
begins  to  find  its  way  in  sufficient  abundance  into  these  new 
channels,  the  government  may  withdraw.  But  it  can  not 
omit  to  begin.  It  should  take  the  first  steps,  and  should 
take  them  at  once.  Our  goods  must  not  lie  piled  up  at  our 
ports  and  stored  upon  side-tracks  in  freight  cars  which  are 
daily  needed  on  the  roads;  must  not  be  left  without  means 
of  transport  to  any  foreign  quarter.  Ws  must  not  await  the 

144 


Woodrow    Wilson 

permission  of  foreign  ship-owners  and  foreign  governments 
to  send  them  where  we  will. 

With  a  view  to  meeting  these  pressing  necessities  of  our 
commerce  and  availing  ourselves  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment  of  the  present  unparalleled  opportunity  of  linking 
the  two  Americas  together  in  bonds  of  mutual  interest  and 
service,  an  opportunity  which  may  never  return  again  if  we 
miss  it  now,  proposals  will  be  made  to  the  present  Con 
gress  for  the  purchase  or  construction  of  ships  to  be  owned 
and  directed  by  the  government  similar  to  those  made  to 
the  last  Congress,  but  modified  in  some  essential  particu 
lars.  I  recommend  these  proposals  to  you  for  your  prompt 
acceptance  with  the  more  confidence  because  every  month 
that  has  elapsed  since  the  former  proposals  were  made  has 
made  the  necessity  for  such  action  more  and  more  mani 
festly  imperative.  This  need  was  then  foreseen.;  it  is  now 
acutely  felt  and  everywhere  realized  by  those  for  whom 
trade  is  waiting  but  who  can  find  no  conveyance  for  their 
goods.  I  am  not  so  much  interested  in  the  particulars  of 
the  programme  as  I  am  in  taking  immediate  advantage  of 
the  great  opportunity  which  awaits  us  if  we  will  but  act  in 
this  emergency.  In  this  matter,  as  in  all  others,  a  spirit  of 
common  counsel  should  prevail,  and  out  of  it  should  come  an 
early  solution  of  this  pressing  problem. 

There  is  another  matter  which  seems  to  me  to  be  very  in 
timately  associated  with  the  question  of  national  safety  and 
preparation  for  defense.  That  is  our  policy  towards  the 
Philippines  and  the  people  of  Porto  Rico.  Our  treatment 
of  them  and  their  attitude  towards  us  are  manifestly  of  the 
first  consequence  in  the  development  of  our  duties  in  the 
world  and  in  getting  a  free  hand  to  perform  those  duties. 
We  must  be  free  from  every  unnecessary  burden  or  embar 
rassment;  and  there  is  no  better  way  to  be  clear  of  em 
barrassment  than  to  fulfil  our  promises  and  promote  the 
interests  of  those  dependent  on  us  to  the  utmost.  Bills  for 
•the  alteration  and  reform  of  the  government  of  the  Philip- 

145 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

pines  and  for  rendering  fuller  political  justice  to  the  people 
of  Porto  Rico  were  submitted  to  the  sixty-third  Congress. 
They  will  be  submitted  also  to  you.  I  need  not  particular 
ize  their  details.  You  are  most  of  you  already  familiar 
with  them.  But  I  do  recommend  them  to  your  early  adop 
tion  with  the  sincere  conviction  that  there  are  few  meas 
ures  you  could  adopt  which  would  more  serviceably  clear 
the  way  for  the  great  policies  by  which  we  wish  to  make 
good,  now  and  always,  our  right  to  lead  in  enterprises  of 
peace  and  good  will  and  economic  and  political  freedom. 

The  plans  for  the  armed  forces  of  the  nation  which  I 
have  outlined,  and  for  the  general  policy  of  adequate  prep 
aration  for  mobilization  and  defense,  involve  of  course 
very  large  additional  expenditures  of  money, — expenditures 
which  will  considerably  exceed  the  estimated  revenues  of 
the  government.  It  is  made  my  duty  by  law,  whenever 
the  estimates  of  expenditure  exceed  the  estimates  of  rev 
enue,  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Congress  to  the  fact  and 
suggest  any  means  of  meeting  the  deficiency  that  it  may  be 
wise  or  possible  for  me  to  suggest.  I  am  ready  to  believe 
that  it  would  be  my  duty  to  do  so  in  any  case;  and  I  feel 
particularly  bound  to  speak  of  the  matter  when  it  appears 
that  the  deficiency  will  arise  directly  out  of  the  adoption 
by  the  Congress  of  measures  which  I  myself  urge  it  to> 
adopt.  Allow  me,  therefore,  to  speak  briefly  of  the  present 
state  of  the  Treasury  and  of  the  fiscal  problems  which  the 
next  year  will  probably  disclose. 

On  the  thirtieth  of  June  last  there  was  an  available  bal 
ance  in  the  general  fund  of  the  Treasury  of  $104-,170,- 
105.78.  The  total  estimated  receipts  for  the  year  1916,  on 
the  assumption  that  the  emergency  revenue  measure  passed 
by  the  last  Congress  will  not  be  extended  beyond  its  pres 
ent  limit,  the  thirty-first  of  December,  1915,  and  that  the 
present  duty  of  one  cent  per  pound  on  sugar  will  be  discon 
tinued  after  the  first  of  May,  1916,  will  be  $670,365,500. 
The  balance  of  June  last  and  these  estimated  revenues  come, 

146 


Woodrow    Wilson 

therefore,  to  a  grand  total  of  $774,535,605.78.  The  total 
estimated  disbursements  for  the  present  fiscal  year,  inclu 
ding  twenty-five  millions  for  the  Panama  Canal,  twelve 
millions  for  probable  deficiency  appropriations,  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  miscellaneous  debt  redemptions,  will 
be  $753,891,000;  and  the  balance  in  the  general  fund  of 
the  Treasury  will  be  reduced  to  $20,644,605.78.  The 
emergency  revenue  act,  if  continued  beyond  its  present 
time  limitation,  would  produce,  during  the  half  year  then 
remaining,  about  forty-one  millions.  The  duty  of  one  cent 
per  pound  on  sugar,  if  continued,  would  produce  during  the 
two  months  of  the  fiscal  year  remaining  after  the  first  of 
May,  about  fifteen  millions.  These  two  sums,  amounting 
together  to  fifty-six  millions,  if  added  to  the  revenues  of 
the  second  half  of  the  fiscal  year,  would  yield  the  Treasury 
at  the  end  of  the  year  an  available  balance  of  $76,644,- 
605.78. ' 

The  additional  revenues  required  to  carry  out  the  pro 
gramme  of  military  and  naval  preparation  of  which  I  have 
spoken  would,  as  at  present  estimated,  be  for  the  fiscal 
year  1917,  $93,800,000.  Those  figures,  taken  with  the 
figures  for  the  present  fiscal  year  which  I  have  already 
given,  disclose  our  financial  problem  for  the  year  1917. 
Assuming  that  the  taxes  imposed  by  the  emergency  revenue 
act  and  the  present  duty  on  sugar  are  to  be  discontinued, 
and  that  the  balance  at  the  close  of  the  present  fiscal  year 
will  be  only  $20,644,605.78,  that  the  disbursements  for  the 
Panama  Canal  will  again  be  about  twenty-five  millions,  and 
that  the  additional  expenditures  for  the  army  and  navy  are 
authorized  by  the  Congress,  the  deficit  in  the  general  fund 
of  the  Treasury  on  the  thirtieth  of  June,  1917,  will  be 
nearly  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  millions.  To  this  sum 
at  least  fifty  millions  should  be  added  to  represent  a  safe 
working  balance  for  the  Treasury,  and  twelve  millions  to 
include  the  usual  deficiency  estimates  in  1917;  and  these 
additions  would  make  a  total  deficit  of  some  two  hundred 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

and  ninety-seven  millions.  If  the  present  taxes  should  be 
continued  throughout  this  year  and  the  next,  however, 
there  would  be  a  balance  in  the  Treasury  of  some  seventy- 
six  and  a  half  millions  at  the  end  of  the  present  fiscal  year, 
and  a  deficit  at  the  end  of  the  next  year  of  only  some  fifty 
millions,  or,  reckoning  in  sixty-two  millions  for  deficiency 
appropriations  and  a  safe  Treasury  balance  at  the  end  of 
the  year,  a  total  deficit  of  some  one  hundred  and  twelve  mil 
lions.  The  obvious  moral  of  the  figures  is  that  it  is  a  plain 
counsel  of  prudence  to  continue  all  of  the  present  taxes  or 
their  equivalents,  and  confine  ourselves  to  the  problem  of 
providing  one  hundred  and  twelve  millions  of  new  revenue 
rather  than  two  hundred  and  ninety-seven  millions. 

How  shall  we  obtain  the  new  revenue?  We  are  fre 
quently  reminded  that  there  are  many  millions  of  bonds 
which  the  Treasury  is  authorized  under  existing  law  to  sell 
to  reimburse  the  sums  paid  out  of  current  revenues  for  the 
construction  of  the  Panama  Canal ;  and  it  is  true  that  bonds 
to  the  amount  of  approximately  $222,000,000  are  now 
available  for  that  purpose.  Prior  to  1913  $134,631,980 
of  these  bonds  had  actually  been  sold  to  recoup  the  expend 
itures  at  the  Isthmus;  and  now  constitute  a  considerable 
item  of  the  public  debt.  But  I,  for  one,  do  not  believe  that 
the  people  of  this  country  approve  of  postponing  the  pay 
ment  of  their  bills.  Borrowing  money  is  short-sighted 
finance.  It  can  be  justified  only  when  permanent  things 
are  to  be  accomplished  which  many  generations  will  cer 
tainly  benefit  by  and  which  it  seems  hardly  fair  that  a  single 
generation  should  pay  for.  The  objects  we  are  now  pro 
posing  to  spend  money  for  cannot  be  so  classified,  except 
in  the  sense  that  everything  wisely  done  may  be  said 
to  be  done  in  the  interest  of  posterity  as  well  as  in  our 
own.  It  seems  to  me  a  clear  dictate  of  prudent  statesman 
ship  and  frank  finance  that  in  what  we  are  now,  I  hope, 
about  to  undertake  we  should  pay  as  we  go.  The  people 
of  the  country  are  entitled  to  know  just  what  burdens  of 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

taxation  they  are  to  carry,  and  to  know  from  the  outset, 
now.  The  new  bills  should  be  paid  by  internal  taxation. 

To  what  sources,  then,  shall  we  turn?  This  is  so  pecul 
iarly  a  question  which  the  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  are  expected  under  the  Constitution  to  propose 
an  answer  to  that  you  will  hardly  expect  me  to  do  more 
than  discuss  it  in  very  general  terms.  We  should  be  follow 
ing  an  almost  universal  example  of  modern  governments 
if  we  were  to  draw  the  greater  part  or  even  the  whole  of 
the  revenues  we  need  from  the  income  taxes.  By  somewhat 
lowering  the  present  limits  of  exemption  and  the  figure  at 
which  the  surtax  shall  begin  to  be  imposed,  and  by  increas 
ing,  step  by  step  throughout  the  present  graduation,  the 
surtax  itself,  the  income  taxes  as  at  present  apportioned 
would  yield  sums  sufficient  to  balance  the  books  of  the 
Treasury  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year  1917  without  any 
where  making  the  burden  unreasonably  or  oppressively 
heavy.  The  precise  reckonings  are  fully  and  accurately  set 
out  in  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  which 
will  be  immediately  laid  before  you. 

And  there  are  many  additional  sources  of  revenue  which 
can  justly  be  resorted  to  without  hammering  the  industries 
of  the  country  or  putting  any  too  great  charge  upon  indi 
vidual  expenditure.  A  tax  of  one  cent  per  gallon  on  gaso 
line  and  naphtha  would  yield,  at  the  present  estimated  pro 
duction,  $10,000,000;  a  tax  of  fifty  cents  per  horsepower 
on  automobiles  and  internal  explosion  engines,  $15,000,000; 
a  stamp  tax  on  bank  cheques,  probably  $18,000,000;  a  tax 
of  twenty-five  cents  per  ton  on  pig  iron,  $10,000,000;  a 
tax  of  twenty-five  cents  per  ton  on  fabricated  iron  and  steel 
probably  $10,000,000.  In  a  country  of  great  industries 
like  this  it  ought  to  be  easy  to  distribute  the  burdens  of 
taxation  without  making  them  anywhere  bear  too  heavily 
or  too  exclusively  upon  any  one  set  of  persons  or  under 
takings.  What  is  clear  is,  that  the  industry  of  this  genera 
tion  should  pay  the  bills  of  this  generation. 

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I  have  spoken  to  you  to-day,  Gentlemen,  upon  a  single 
theme,  the  thorough  preparation  of  the  nation  to  care  for 
its  own  security  and  to  make  sure  of  entire  freedom  to  play 
the  impartial  role  in  this  hemisphere  and  in  the  world  which 
we  all  believe  to  have  been  providentially  assigned  to  it.  I 
have  had  in  my  mind  no  thought  of  any  immediate  or  partic 
ular  danger  arising  out  of  our  relations  with  other  nations. 
We  are  at  peace  with  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
there  is  reason  to  hope  that  no  question  in  controversy  be 
tween  this  and  other  Governments  will  lead  to  any  serious 
breach  of  amicable  relations,  grave  as  some  differences  of 
attitude  and  policy  have  been  and  may  yet  turn  out  to  be. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  gravest  threats  against  our  na 
tional  peace  and  safety  have  been  uttered  within  our  own 
borders.  There  are  citizens  of  the  United  States,  I  blush 
to  admit,  born  under  other  flags  but  welcomed  under  our 
generous  naturalization  laws  to  the  full  freedom  and  op 
portunity  of  America,  who  have  poured  the  poison  of  dis 
loyalty  into  the  very  arteries  of  our  national  life;  who 
have  sought  to  bring  the  authority  and  good  name  of  our 
Government  into  contempt,  to  destroy  our  industries  wher 
ever  they  thought  it  effective  for  their  vindictive  purposes 
to  strike  at  them,  and  to  debase  our  policies  to  the  uses  of 
foreign  intrigue.  Their  number  is  not  great  as  compared 
with  the  whole  number  of  those  sturdy  hosts  by  which  our 
nation  has  been  enriched  in  recent  generations  out  of  virile 
foreign  stocks;  but  it  is  great  enough  to  have  brought  deep 
disgrace  upon  us  and  to  have  made  it  necessary  that  we 
should  promptly  make  use  of  processes  of  law  by  which  we 
may  be  purged  of  their  corrupt  distempers.  America  never 
witnessed  anything  like  this  before.  It  never  dreamed  it 
possible  that  men  sworn  into  its  own  citizenship,  men  drawn 
out  of  great  free  stocks  such  as  supplied  some  of  the  best 
and  strongest  elements  of  that  little,  but  how  heroic,  na 
tion  that  in  a  high  day  of  old  staked  its  very  life  to  free  it 
self  from  every  entanglement  that  had  darkened  the  for- 

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tunes  of  the  older  nations  and  set  up  a  new  standard  here, 
—that  men  of  such  origins  and  such  free  choices  of  alle 
giance  would  ever  turn  in  malign  reaction  against  the  Gov 
ernment  and  people  who  had  welcomed  and  nurtured  them 
and  seek  to  make  this  proud  country  once  more  a  hotbed  of 
European  passion.  A  little  while  ago  such  a  thing  would 
have  seemed  incredible.  Because  it  was  incredible  we 
made  no  preparation  for  it.  We  would  have  been  almost 
ashamed  to  prepare  for  it,  as  if  we  were  suspicious  of  our 
selves,  our  own  comrades  and  neighbors!  But  the  ugly 
and  incredible  thing  has  actually  come  about  and  we  are 
without  adequate  federal  laws  to  deal  with  it.  I  urge  you 
to  enact  such  laws  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  and  feel 
that  in  doing  so  I  am  urging  you  to  do  nothing  less  than 
save  the  honor  and  self-respect  of  the  nation.  Such  crea 
tures  of  passion,  disloyalty,  and  anarchy  must  be  crushed 
out.  They  are  not  many,  but  they  are  infinitely  malignant, 
and  the  hand  of  our  power  should  close  over  them  at  once. 
They  have  formed  plots  to  destroy  property,  they  have 
entered  into  conspiracies  against  the  neutrality  of  the 
Government,  they  have  sought  to  pry  into  every  confidential 
transaction  of  the  Government  in  order  to  serve  interests 
alien  to  our  own.  It  is  possible  to  deal  with  these  things 
very  effectually.  I  need  not  suggest  the  terms  in  which 
they  may  be  dealt  with. 

I  wish  that  it  could  be  said  that  only  a  few  men,  misled 
by  mistaken  sentiments  of  allegiance  to  the  governments 
under  which  they  under  which  they  were  born,  had  been 
guilty  of  disturbing  the  self-possession  and  misrepresenting 
the  temper  and  principles  of  the  country  during  these  days 
of  terrible  war,  when  it  would  seem  that  every  man  who 
was  truly  an  American  would  instinctively  make  it  his  duty 
and  his  pride  to  keep  the  scales  of  judgment  even  and  prove 
himself  a  partisan  of  no  nation  but  his  own.  But  it  cannot. 
There  are  some  men  among  us,  and  many  resident  abroad 
who,  though  born  and  bred  in  the  United  States  and  calling 

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themselves  Americans,  have  so  forgotten  themselves  and 
their  honor  as  citizens  as  to  put  their  passionate  sympathy 
with  one  or  che  other  side  in  the  great  European  conflict 
above  their  regard  for  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  United 
States.  They  also  preach  and  practice  disloyalty.  No 
laws,  I  suppose,  can  reach  corruptions  of  the  mind  and 
heart ;  but  I  should  not  speak  of  others  without  also  speak 
ing  of  these  and  expressing  the  even  deeper  humiliation 
and  scorn  which  every  self-possessed  and  thoughtfully  pa 
triotic  American  must  feel  when  he  thinks  of  them  and  of 
the  discredit  they  are  daily  bringing  upon  us. 

While  we  speak  of  the  preparation  of  the  nation  to  make 
sure  of  her  security  and  her  effective  power  we  must  not 
fall  into  the  patent  error  of  supposing  that  her  real  strength 
comes  from  armaments  and  mere  safeguards  of  written 
law.  It  comes,  of  course,  from  her  people,  their  energy, 
their  success  in  their  undertakings,  their  free  opportunity 
to  use  the  natural  resources  of  our  great  home  land  and  of 
the  lands  outside  our  continental  borders  which  look  to  us 
for  protection,  for  encouragement,  and  for  assistance  in 
their  development;  from  the  organization  and  freedom  and 
vitality  of  our  economic  life.  The  domestic  questions  which 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  last  Congress  are  more  vital 
to  the  nation  in  this  its  time  of  test  than  at  any  other  time. 
We  can  not  adequately  make  ready  for  any  trial  of  our 
strength  unless  we  wisely  and  promptly  direct  the  force 
of  our  laws  into  these  all-important  fields  of  domestic  ac 
tion.  A  matter  which  it  seems  to  me  we  should  have  very 
much  at  heart  is  the  creation  of  the  right  instrumentalities 
by  which  to  mobilize  our  economic  resources  in  any  time  of 
national  necessity.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  I  do  not  need 
your  authority  to  call  into  sympathetic  consultation  with 
the  directing  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  men  of  recog 
nized  leadership  and  ability  from  among  our  citizens  who 
are  thoroughly  familiar,  for  example,  with  the  transporta 
tion  facilities  of  the  country  and  therefore  competent  to 

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advise  how  they  may  be  coordinated  when  the  heed  arises, 
those  who  can  suggest  the  best  way  in  which  to  bring 
about  prompt  cooperation  among  the  manufacturers  of  the 
country,  should  it  be  necessary,  and  those  who  could  assist 
to  bring  the  technical  skill  of  the  country  to  the  aid  of  the 
Government  in  the  solution  of  particular  problems  of  de 
fense.  I  only  hope  that  if  I  should  find  it  feasible  to  con 
stitute  such  an  advisory  body  the  Congress  would  be  will 
ing  to  vote  the  small  sum  of  money  that  would  be  needed 
to  defray  the  expenses  that  would  probably  be  necessary  to 
give  it  the  clerical  and  administrative  machinery  with  which 
to  do  serviceable  work. 

What  is  more  important  is,  that  the  industries  and  re 
sources  of  the  country  should  be  available  and  ready  for 
mobilization.  It  is  the  more  imperatively  necessary,  there 
fore,  that  we  should  promptly  devise  means  for  doing  what 
we  have  not  yet  done:  that  we  should  give  intelligent  fed 
eral  aid  and  stimulation  to  industrial  and  vocational  edu 
cation,  as  we  have  long  done  in  the  large  field  of  our  agri 
cultural  industry;  that,  at  the  same  time  that  we  safeguard 
and  conserve  the  natural  resources  of  the  country  we  should 
put  them  at  the  disposal  of  those  who  will  use  them 
promptly  and  intelligently,  as  was  sought  to  be  done  in  the 
admirable  bills  submitted  to  the  last  Congress  from  its  com 
mittees  on  the  public  lands,  bills  which  I  earnestly  recom 
mend  in  principle  to  your  consideration;  that  we  should 
put  into  early  operation  some  provision  for  rural  credits 
which  will  add  to  the  extensive  borrowing  facilities  already 
afforded  the  farmer  by  the  Reserve  Bank  Act,  adequate  in 
strumentalities  by  which  long  credits  may  be  obtained  on 
land  mortgages;  and  that  we  should  study  more  carefully 
than  they  have  hitherto  been  studied  the  right  adaptation 
of  our  economic  arrangements  to  changing  conditions. 

Many  conditions  about  which  we  have  repeatedly  legis 
lated  are  being  altered  from  decade  to  decade,  it  is  evi 
dent,  under  our  very  eyes,  and  are  likely  to  change  even 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

more  rapidly  and  more  radically  in  the  days  immediately 
ahead  of  us,  when  peace  has  returned  to  the  world  and  the 
nations  of  Europe  once  more  take  up  their  tasks  of  com 
merce  and  industry  with  the  energy  of  those  who  must  be 
stir  themselves  to  build  anew.  Just  what  these  changes  will 
be  no  one  can  certainly  foresee  or  confidently  predict.  There 
are  no  calculable,  because  no  stable,  elements  in  the  prob 
lem.  The  most  we  can  do  is  to  make  certain  that  we  have 
the  necessary  instrumentalities  of  information  constantly 
at  our  service  so  that  we  may  be  sure  that  we  know  ex 
actly  what  we  are  dealing  with  when  we  come  to  act,  if  it 
should  be  necessary  to  act  at  all.  We  must  first  certainly 
know  what  it  is  that  we  are  seeking  to  adapt  ourselves  to. 
I  may  ask  the  privilege  of  addressing  you  more  at  length 
on  this  important  matter  a  little  later  in  your  session. 

In  the  meantime  may  I  make  this  suggestion  ?  The  trans 
portation  problem  is  an  exceedingly  serious  and  pressing 
one  in  this  country.  There  has  from  time  to  time  of  late 
been  reason  to  fear  that  our  railroads  would  not  much 
longer  be  able  to  cope  with  it  successfully,  as  at  present 
equipped  and  coordinated.  I  suggest  that  it  would  be 
wise  to  provide  for  a  commission  of  inquiry  to  ascertain  by 
a  thorough  canvass  of  the  whole  question  whether  our  laws 
as  at  present  framed  and  administered  are  as  serviceable  as 
they  might  be  in  the  solution  of  the  problem.  It  is  ob 
viously  a  problem  that  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  our 
efficiency  as  a  people.  Such  an  inquiry  ought  to  draw 
out  every  circumstance  and  opinion  worth  considering  and 
we  need  to  know  all  sides  of  the  matter  if  we  mean  to  do 
anything  in  the  field  of  federal  legislation. 

No  one,  I  am  sure,  would  wish  to  take  any  backward 
step.  The  regulation  of  the  railways  of  the  country  by 
federal  commission  has  had  admirable  results  and  has  fully 
justified  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  those  by  whom  the 
policy  of  regulation  was  originally  proposed.  The  ques 
tion  is  not  what  should  we  undo?  It  is,  whether  there  is 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

anything  else  we  can  do  that  will  supply  us  the  effective 
means,  in  the  very  process  of  regulation,  for  bettering  the 
conditions  under  which  the  railroads  are  operated  and  for 
making  them  more  useful  servants  of  the  country  as  a  whole. 
It  seems  to  me  that  it  might  be  the  part  of  wisdom,,  there 
fore,  before  further  legislation  in  this  field  is  attempted,  to 
look  at  the  whole  problem  of  coordination  and  efficiency 
in  the  full  light  of  a  fresh  assessment  of  circumstance  and 
opinion,  as  a  guide  to  dealing  with  the  several  parts  of  it. 
For  what  we  are  seeking  now,  what  in  my  mind  is  the 
single  thought  of  this  message,  is  national  efficiency  and 
security.  We  serve  a  great  nation.  We  should  serve  it  in 
the  spirit  of  its  peculiar  genius.  It  is  the  genius  of  com 
mon  men  for  self-government,  industry,  justice,  liberty  and 
peace.  We  should  see  to  it  that  it  lacks  no  instrument,  no 
facility  or  vigor  of  law,  to  make  it  sufficient  to  play  its 
part  with  energy,  safety,  and  assured  success.  In  this  we 
are  no  partisans  but  heralds  and  prophets  of  a  new  age. 


WILSON'S  ADDRESSES  ON  MIDDLE  WESTERN  TOUR,  URGING 

PREPAREDNESS  FOR  NATIONAL  DEFENSE, 

JANUARY  27  TO  FEBRUARY  3,  1916 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  Congress  had  been  in  session  nearly 
two  months  without  definite  accomplishment,  and  the  Presi 
dent  undertook  this  speaking  trip  to  urge  citizens  to  "back 
him  up"  in  demands  for  national  defense.  He  confessed 
his  own  change  of  mind  since  his  message  to  Congress  in 
December,  1914,  and  his  purpose  "to  go  out  and  tell  my 
fellow  countrymen  that  new  circumstances  have  arisen 
which  make  it  absolutely  necessary  that  this  country  should 
prepare  herself,  not  for  war,  but  for  adequate  national 
defense."  He  went  as  far  west  as  Kansas,  delivering 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

formal  addresses  in  eight  States.  As  he  used  the  same 
arguments  in  several  speeches,  there  has  been  some  con 
densation  in  the  pages  immediately  following.] 

BEFORE  THE  RAILWAY  BUSINESS  ASSOCIATION,  NEW  YORK 
CITY,  JANUARY  27,  1916. 

Mr.  Toastmaster,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

The  question,  ft  seems  to  me,  which  most  demands  clarifi 
cation  just  now  is  the  question  to  which  your  toastmaster 
has  referred,  the  question  of  preparation  for  national  de 
fense.  I  say  that  it  stands  in  need  of  clarification  because 
it  has  been  deeply  clouded  by  passion  and  prejudice.  It 
is  very  singular  that  a  question  the  elements  of  which  are 
so  simple  and  so  obvious  should  have  been  so  beclouded  by 
the  discussion  of  men  of  high  motive,  men  of  purpose  as 
handsome  as  any  of  us  may  claim  and  yet  apparently  in 
capable  of  divesting  themselves  of  that  sort  of  provincialism 
which  consists  in  thinking  the  contents  of  their  own  mind  to 
be  the  contents  of  the  mind  of  the  world.  For,  gentlemen, 
while  America  is  a  very  great  Nation,  while  America  con 
tains  every  element  of  fine  force  and  accomplishment,  Amer 
ica  does  not  constitute  the  major  part  of  the  world.  We  live 
in  a  world  which  we  did  not  make,  which  we  can  not  alter, 
which  we  can  not  think  into  a  different  condition  from  that 
which  actually  exists.  It  would  be  a  hopeless  piece  of  pro 
vincialism  to  suppose  that  because  we  think  differently  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  we  are  at  liberty  to  assume  that  the 
rest  of  the  world  will  permit  us  to  enjoy  that  thought  with 
out  disturbance. 

It  is  a  surprising  circumstance,  also,  that  men  should  al 
low  partisan  feeling  or  personal  ambition  to  creep  into  the 
discussion  of  this  fundamental  thing.  How  can  Americans 
differ  about  the  safety  of  America?  I,  for  my  part,  am 
ambitious  that  America  should  do  a  greater  and  more  dif 
ficult  thing  than  the  great  nations  on  the  other  side  of  the 

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water  have  done.  In  all  the  belligerent  countries  men  with 
out  distinction  of  party  have  drawn  together  to  accomplish 
a  successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  Is  it  not  a  more  dif 
ficult  and  a  more  desirable  thing  that  all  Americans  should 
put  partisan  prepossessions  aside  and  draw  together  for 
the  successful  prosecution  of  peace?  I  covet  that  distinc 
tion  for  America;  and  I  believe  that  America  is  going  to 
enjoy  that  distinction.  Only  the  other  day  the  leader  of 
the  Republican  minority  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
delivered  a  speech  which  showed  that  he  was  ready  and, 
I  take  it  for  granted,  that  the  men  behind  him  were  ready, 
to  forget  party  lines  in  order  that  all  men  may  act  with  a 
common  mind  and  impulse  for  the  service  of  the  country; 
and  I  want  upon  this  first  public  occasion  to  pay  my  tribute 
of  respect  and  obligation  to  him. 

Let  no  man  dare  to  say,  if  he  would  speak  the  truth,  that 
the  question  of  preparation  for  national  defense  is  a  ques 
tion  of  war  or  of  peace.  If  there  is  one  passion  more  deep- 
seated  in  the  hearts  of  our  fellow  countrymen  than  another, 
it  is  the  passion  for  peace.  No  nation  in  the  world  ever 
more  instinctively  turned  away  from  the  thought  of  war 
than  this  Nation  to  which  we  belong.  Partly  because  in  the 
plentitude  of  its  power,  in  the  unrestricted  area  of  its  op 
portunities,  it  has  found  nothing  to  covet  in  the  possession 
and  power  of  other  nations.  There  is  no  spirit  of  aggran 
dizement  in  America.  There  is  no  desire  on  the  part  of  any 
thoughtful  and  conscientious  American  man  to  take  one  foot 
of  territory  from  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  I  myself 
share  to  the  bottom  of  my  heart  that  profound  love  for 
peace.  I  have  sought  to  maintain  peace  against  very  great 
and  sometimes  very  unfair  odds.  I  have  had  many  a  time 
to  use  every  power  that  was  in  me  to  prevent  such  a  catas 
trophe  as  war  coming  upon  this  country.  It  is  not  per 
missible  for  any  man  to  say  that  anxiety  for  the  defense  of 
the  Nation  has  in  it  the  least  tinge  of  desire  for  a  power 
that  can  be  used  to  bring  on  war. 

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But,  gentlemen,  there  is  something  that  the  American 
people  love  better  than  they  love  peace.  They  love  the 
principles  upon  which  their  political  life  is  founded.  They 
are  ready  at  any  time  to  fight  for  the  vindication  of  their 
character  and  of  their  honor.  They  will  not  at  any  time 
seek  the  contest,  but  they  will  at  no  time  cravenly  avoid  it ; 
because  if  there  is  one  thing  that  the  individual  ought  to 
fight  for,  and  that  the  Nation  ought  to  fight  for,  it  is  the 
integrity  of  its  own  convictions.  We  can  not  surrender  our 
convictions.  I  would  rather  surrender  territory  than  sur 
render  those  ideals  which  are  the  staff  of  life  of  the  soul 
itself.  .  .  . 

Perhaps  when  you  learned,  as  I  dare  say  you  did  learn 
beforehand,  that  I  was  expecting  to  address  you  on  the  sub 
ject  of  preparedness,  you  recalled  the  address  which  I  made 
to  Congress  something  more  than  a  year  ago,  in  which  I 
said  that  this  question  of  military  preparedness  was  not  a 
pressing  question.  But  more  than  a  year  has  gone  by  since 
then  and  I  would  be  ashamed  if  I  had  not  learned  something 
in  fourteen  months.  The  minute  I  stop  changing  my  mind 
with  the  change  of  all  the  circumstances  of  the  world,  I  will 
be  a  back  number. 

There  is  another  thing  about  which  I  have  changed  my 
mind.  A  year  ago  I  was  not  in  favor  of  a  tariff  board,  and 
I  will  tell  you  why.  Then  the  only  purpose  of  a  tariff  board 
was  to  keep  alive  an  unprofitable  controversy.  If  you  set 
up  any  board  of  inquiry  whose  purpose  it  is  to  keep  business 
disturbed  and  to  make  it  always  an  open  question  what  you 
are  going  to  do  about  the  public  policy  of  the  Government, 
I  am  opposed  to  it;  and  the  very  men  who  were  dinning  it 
into  our  ears  that  what  business  wanted  was  to  be  let  alone 
were,  many  of  them,  men  who  were  insisting  that  we  should 
stir  up  a  controversy  which  meant  that  we  could  not  let 
business  alone.  There  is  a  great  deal  more  opinion  vocal  in 
this  world  than  is  consistent  with  logic.  But  the  circum 
stances  of  the  present  time  are  these :  There  is  going  on  in 

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the  world  under  our  eyes  an  economic  revolution.  No  man 
understands  that  revolution;  no  man  has  the  elements  of  it 
clearly  in  his  mind.  No  part  of  the  business  of  legislation 
with  regard  to  international  trade  can  be  undertaken  until 
we  do  understand  it ;  and  members  of  Congress  are  too  busy, 
their  duties  are  too  multifarious  and  distracting  to  make  it 
possible  within  a  sufficiently  short  space  of  time  for  them 
to  master  the  change  that  is  corning.  .  .  . 

What  I  am  trying  to  impress  upon  you  now  is  that  the 
circumstances  of  the  world  to-day  are  not  what  they  were 
yesterday,  or  ever  were  in  any  of  our  yesterdays.  And  it 
is  not  certain  what  they  will  be  to-morrow.  I  can  not  tell 
you  what  the  international  relations  of  this  country  will  be 
to-morrow,  and  I  use  the  word  literally;  and  I  would  not 
dare  keep  silent  and  let  the  country  suppose  that  to-morrow 
was  certain  to  be  as  bright  as  to-day.  America  will  never 
be  the  aggressor,  America  will  always  seek  to  the  last  point 
at  which  her  honor  is  involved  to  avoid  the  things  which  dis 
turb  the  peace  of  the  world;  but  America  does  not  control 
the  circumstances  of  the  world,  and  we  must  be  sure  that 
we  are  faithful  servants  of  those  things  which  we  love,  and 
are  ready  to  defend  them  against  every  contingency  that 
may  affect  or  impair  them. 

And,  as  I  was  saying  a  moment  ago,  we  must  seek  the 
means  which  are  consistent  with  the  principles  of  our  lives. 
It  goes  without  saying,  though  apparently  it  is  necessary  to 
say  it  to  some  excited  persons,  that  one  thing  that  this  coun 
try  never  will  endure  is  a  system  that  can  be  called  mili 
tarism.  But  militarism  consists  in  this,  gentlemen:  It  con 
sists  in  preparing  a  great  machine  whose  only  use  is  for 
war  and  giving  it  no  use  upon  which  to  expend  itself.  Men 
who  are  in  charge  of  edged  tools  and  bidden  to  prepare 
them  for  exact  and  scientific  use  grow  very  impatient  if  they 
are  not  permitted  to  use  them,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
creation  of  such  an  instrument  is  an  insurance  of  peace. 
I  believe  that  it  involves  the  danger  of  all  the  impulses  that 

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skillful  persons  have  to  use  the  things  that  they  know  how 
to  use. 

But  we  do  not  have  to  do  that.  America  is  always  going 
to  use  her  Army  in  two  ways.  She  is  going  to  use  it  for 
the  purposes  of  peace,  and  she  is  going  to  use  it  as  a  nucleus 
for  expansion  into  those  things  which  she  does  believe  in, 
namely,  the  preparation  of  her  citizens  to  take  care  of  them 
selves.  There  are  two  sides  to  the  question  of  preparation; 
there  is  not  merely  the  military  side,  there  is  the  industrial 
side ;  and  the  ideal  which  I  have  in  mind  is  this :  We  ought 
to  have  in  this  country  a  great  system  of  industrial  and  vo 
cational  education  under  Federal  guidance  and  with  Fed 
eral  aid,  in  which  a  very  large  percentage  of  the  youth  of 
this  country  will  be  given  training  in  the  skillful  use  and 
application  of  the  principles  of  science  in  manufacture  and 
business ;  and  it  will  be  perfectly  feasible  and  highly  desir 
able  to  add  to  that  and  combine  with  it  such  a  training  in 
the  mechanism  and  care  and  use  of  arms,  in  the  sanitation 
of  camps,  in  the  simpler  forms  of  maneuver  and  organiza 
tion,  as  will  make  these  same  men  at  one  and  the  same 
time  industrially  efficient  and  immediately  serviceable  for 
national  defense.  The  point  about  such  a  system  will  be 
that  its  emphasis  will  lie  on  the  industrial  and  civil  side 
of  life,  and  that,  like  all  the  rest  of  America,  the  use  of 
force  will  only  be  in  the  background  and  as  the  last  resort. 
Men  will  think  first  of  their  families  and  their  daily  work, 
of  their  service  in  the  economic  ranks  of  the  country,  of 
their  efficiency  as  artisans,  and  only  last  of  all  of  their  serv 
iceability  to  the  Nation  as  soldiers  and  men  at  arms.  That 
is  the  ideal  of  America. 

But,  gentlemen,  you  can  not  create  such  a  system  over 
night;  you  cannot  create  such  a  system  rapidly.  It  has  got 
to  be  built  up,  and  I  hope  it  will  be  built  up,  by  slow  and 
effective  stages ;  and  there  is  much  to  be  done  in  the  mean 
time.  We  must  see  to  it  that  a  sufficient  body  of  citizens 
is  given  the  kind  of  training  which  will  make  them  efficient 

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now  if  called  into  the  field  in  case  of  necessity.  It  is  dis 
creditable  to  this  country,  gentlemen,  for  this  is  a  country 
full  of  intelligent  men,  that  we  should  have  exhibited  to  the 
world  the  example  we  have  sometimes  exhibited  to  it,  of 
stupid  and  brutal  waste  of  force.  Think  of  asking  men  who 
can  be  easily  trained  to  come  into  the  field,  crude,  ignorant, 
inexperienced,  and  merely  furnishing  the  stuff  for  camp 
fever  and  the  bullets  of  the  enemy.  The  sanitary  experience 
of  our  Army  in  the  Spanish-American  War  was  merely  an 
indictment  of  America's  indifference  to  the  manifest  lessons 
of  experience  in  the  matter  of  ordinary,  careful  preparation. 
We  have  got  the  men  to  waste,  but  God  forbid  that  we 
should  waste  them.  Men  who  go  as  efficient  instruments  of 
national  honor  into  the  field  afford  a  very  handsome  spec 
tacle  indeed.  Men  who  go  in  crude  and  ignorant  boys  only 
indict  those  in  authority  for  stupidity  and  neglect.  So  it 
seems  to  rne  that  it  is  our  manifest  duty  to  have  a  proper 
citizen  reserve. 

I  am  not  forgetting  our  National  Guard.  I  have  had 
the  privilege  of  being  governor  of  one  of  our  great  States,, 
and  there  I  was  brought  into  association  with  what  I  am 
glad  to  believe  is  one  of  the  most  efficient  portions  of  the 
National  Guard  of  the  Nation.  I  learned  to  admire  the 
men,  to  respect  the  officers,  and  to  believe  in  the  National 
Guard;  and  I  believe  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  do 
very  much  more  for  the  National  Guard  than  it  has  ever 
done  heretofore.  I  believe  that  that  great  arm  of  our  na 
tional  defense  should  be  built  up  and  encouraged  to  the  ut 
most;  but,  you  know,  gentlemen,  that  under  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  the  National  Guard  is  under  the 
direction  of  more  than  twoscore  States;  that  it  is  not  per 
mitted  to  the  National  Government  directly  to  have  a  voice 
in  its  development  and  organization;  and  that  only  upon 
occasion  of  actual  invasion  has  the  President  of  the  United 
States  the  right  to  ask  those  men  to  leave  their  respective 
States.  I,  for  ray  part,  am  afraid,  though  some  gentlemen 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

differ  with  me,  that  there  is  no  way  in  which  that  force  can 
be  made  a  direct  resource  as  a  national  reserve  under  na 
tional  authority. 

What  we  need  is  a  body  of  men  trained  in  association 
with  units  of  the  Army,  and  a  body  of  men  organized  un 
der  the  immediate  direction  of  the  national  authority,  a 
body  of  men  subject  to  the  immediate  call  to  arms  of  the 
national  authority,  and  yet  men  not  put  into  the  ranks  of 
the  Regular  Army ;  men  left  to  their  tasks  of  civil  life,  men 
supplied  with  equipment  and  training,  but  not  drawn  away 
from  the  peaceful  pursuits  which  have  made  America  great 
and  must  keep  her  great.  I  am  not  a  partisan  of  any  one 
plan.  I  have  had  too  much  experience  to  think  that  it  is 
right  to  so  say  that  the  plan  that  I  propose  is  the  only  plan 
that  will  work,  because  I  have  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  there 
may  be  other  plans  that  will  work.  What  I  am  after,  and 
what  every  American  ought  to  insist  upon,  is  a  body  of  at 
least  half  a  million  trained  citizens  who  will  serve  under 
conditions  of  danger  as  an  immediately  available  national 
reserve.  . 


AT  PITTSBURGH,  PA.,  JANUARY  29,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  conscious  of  a  sort  of  truancy  in  being  absent  from 
my  duties  in  Washington,  and  yet  it  did  seem  to  me  to  be 
clearly  the  obligation  laid  upon  me  by  the  office  to  which 
I  have  been  chosen  that,  as  your  servant  and  representa 
tive,  I  should  come  and  report  to  you  upon  the  progress 
of  public  affairs.  .  .  . 

You  know  that  there  is  a  multitude  of  voices  upon  the 
question  of  national  defense,  and  I,  for  my  part,  am  not 
inclined  to  criticize  any  of  the  views  that  have  been  put 
forth  upon  this  important  subject,  because  if  there  is  one 

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thing  we  love  more  than  another  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
that  every  man  should  have  the  privilege,  unmolested  and 
uncriticized,  to  utter  the  real  convictions  of  his  mind.  .  .  . 

What  is  it  that  we  want  to  defend?  You  do  not  need 
to  have  me  answer  that  question  for  you;  it  is  your  own 
thought.  We  want  to  defend  the  life  of  this  Nation  against 
any  sort  of  interference.  We  want  to  maintain  the  equal 
right  of  this  Nation  as  against  the  action  of  all  other  nations, 
and  we  wish  to  maintain  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Western 
Hemisphere.  Those  are  great  things  to  defend,  and  in  their 
defense  sometimes  our  thought  must  take  a  great  sweep, 
even  beyond  our  own  borders.  Do  you  never  stop  to  reflect 
just  what  it  is  that  America  stands  for?  If  she  stands 
for  one  thing  more  than  another,  it  is  for  the  sovereignty 
of  self-governing  peoples,  and  her  example,  her  assistance, 
her  encouragement,  has  thrilled  two  continents  in  this  West 
ern  World  with  all  the  fine  impulses  which  have  built  up 
human  liberty  on  both  sides  of  the  water.  She  stands, 
therefore,  as  an  example  of  independence,  as  an  example 
of  free  institutions,  and  as  an  example  of  disinterested 
international  action  in  the  maintenance  of  justice.  These 
are  very  great  things  to  defend,  and  wherever  they  are 
attacked  America  has  at  least  the  duty  of  example,  has  at 
least  the  duty  of  such  action  as  it  is  possible  for  her  with 
self-respect  to  take,  in  order  that  these  things  may  not  be 
neglected  or  thrust  on  one  side.  .  .  . 

I  am  not  going  before  audiences  like  this  to  go  into  the 
details  of  the  programme  which  has  been  proposed  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  because,  after  all,  the  details 
do  not  make  any  difference.  I  believe  in  one  plan;  others 
may  think  that  an  equally  good  plan  can  be  substituted, 
and  I  hope  my  mind  is  open  to  be  convinced  that  it  can; 
but  what  I  am  convinced  of  and  what  we  are  all  working 
for  is  that  there  should  be  provided,  not  a  great  militant 
force  in  this  country,  but  a  great  reserve  of  adequate  and 
available  force  which  can  be  called  on  upon  occasion.  I 

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have  proposed  that  we  should  be  supplied  with  at  least  half 
a  million  men  accustomed  to  handle  arms  and  to  live  in 
camps;  and  that  is  a  very  small  number  as  compared  with 
the  gigantic  proportions  of  modern  armies.  Therefore,  it 
seems  to  me  that  no  man  can  speak  of  proposals  like  that 
as  if  they  pointed  in  the  direction  of  militarism.  .  .  . 

For  I  am  proposing  something  more  than  what  is  tem 
porary.  It  is  my  conception  that  as  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  has  done  a  great  deal,  though  even  yet  prob 
ably  not  enough,  to  promote  agricultural  education  in  this 
country,  it  ought  to  do  a  great  deal  to  promote  industrial 
education  in  this  country,  and  that  along  with  thorough 
going  industrial  and  vocational  training  it  is  perfectly 
feasible  to  instruct  the  youth  of  the  land  in  the  mechanism 
and  use  of  arms,  in  the  sanitation  of  camps,  in  the  more 
rudimentary  principles  and  practices  of  modern  warfare, 
and  so  not  to  bring  about  occasions  such  as  we  have  some 
times  brought  about,  when  upon  a  sudden  danger  young 
sters  were  summoned  by  the  proclamation  of  the  President 
out  of  every  community,  who  came  crude  and  green  and 
raw  into  the  service  of  their  country — infinitely  willing  but 
also  wholly  unfitted  for  the  great  physical  task  which  was 
ahead  of  them.  No  nation  should  waste  its  youth  like  that. 
A  nation  like  this  should  be  ashamed  to  use  an  inefficient 
instrument  when  it  can  make  its  instrument  efficient  for 
everything  that  it  needs  to  employ  it  for,  and  can  do  it 
along  with  the  magnifying  and  ennobling  and  quickening 
of  the  tasks  of  peace. 

But  we  have  to  create  the  schools  and  develop  the  schools 
to  do  these  things,  and  we  can  not  at  present  wait  for  this 
slow  process.  We  must  go  at  once  to  the  task  of  training 
a  very  considerable  body  of  men  to  the  use  of  arms  and 
the  life  of  camps,  and  we  can  do  so  upon  one  condition, 
and  one  condition  only.  The  test,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
of  what  we  are  proposing  is  not  going  to  be  the  action  of 
Congress ;  it  is  going  to  be  the  response  of  the  country.  It 


Woodrow    Wilson 

is  going  to  be  the  volunteering  of  the  men  to  take  the  train 
ing  and  the  willingness  of  their  employers  to  see  to  it  that 
no  obstacle  is  put  in  the  way  of  their  volunteering.  It  will 
be  up  to  the  young  men  of  this  country  and  to  the  men 
who  employ  them;  then,  and  not  till  then,  we  shall  know 
how  far  it  is  true  that  America  wishes  to  prepare  itself  for 
national  defense — not  a  matter  of  sentiment,  but  a  matter 
of  hard  practice. 

Are  the  men  going  to  come  out,  and  are  those  who  em 
ploy  them  going  to  facilitate  their  coming  out?  I  for  one 
believe  that  they  will.  There  are  many  selfish  influences 
at  work  in  this  country,  as  in  every  other;  but  when  it 
comes  to  the  large  view  America  can  produce  the  substance 
of  patriotism  as  abundantly  as  any  other  country  under 
God's  sun.  I  have  no  anxiety  along  those  lines,  and  I 
have  no  anxiety  along  the  lines  of  what  Congress  is  going 
to  do.  You  elect  men  to  Congress  who  have  opinions,  and 
it  is  not  strange  that  they  should  have  differing  opinions. 
I  am  not  jealous  of  debate.  If  what  I  propose  can  not 
stand  debate,  then  something  ought  to  be  substituted  for  it 
which  can.  And  I  am  not  afraid  that  it  is  going  to  be  all 
debate.  I  am  not  afraid  that  nothing  is  going  to  come 
out  of  it.  I  am  not  afraid  that  we  shall  fail  to  get  out  of 
it  the  most  substantial  and  satisfactory  results.  Certainly 
when  I  talk  a  great  deal  myself  I  am  not  going  to  be  jealous 
of  the  other  man's  having  a  chance  to  talk  also.  We  are 
talking,  I  take  it,  in  order  to  get  at  the  very  final  analysis 
of  the  case,  the  final  proof  and  demonstration  of  what  we 
ought  to  do. 

My  own  feeling,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  that  it  is  a 
pity  that  this  is  a  campaign  year.  I  hope,  with  the  chair 
man  of  the  meeting,  that  the  question  of  national  prepara 
tion  for  defense  will  not  by  anybody  be  drawn  into  cam 
paign  uses  or  partisan  aspects.  There  are  many  differences 
between  Democrats  and  Republicans,  honest  differences 
of  opinion  and  of  conviction,  but  Democrats  do  not  differ 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

from  Republicans  upon  the  question  of  the  Nation's  safety, 
and  no  man  ought  to  draw  this  thing  into  controversy  in 
order  to  make  party  or  personal  profit  out  of  it.  I  am  ready 
to  acknowledge  that  men  on  the  other  side  politically  are 
just  as  deeply  and  just  as  intelligently  interested  in  this 
question  as  I  am,  of  course,  and  I  shall  be  ashamed  of  any 
friends  of  mine  who  may  take  any  different  view  of  it. 

I  want  you  to  realize  just  what  is  happening,  not  in 
America,  but  in  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is  very  hard  to 
describe  it  briefly.  It  is  very  hard  to  describe  it  in  quiet 
phrases.  The  world  is  on  fire,  and  there  is  tinder  every 
where.  The  sparks  are  liable  to  drop  anywhere,  and  some 
where  there  may  be  material  which  we  can  not  prevent  from 
bursting  into  flame.  The  influence  of  passion  is  everywhere 
abroad  in  the  world.  It  is  not  strange  that  men  see  red 
in  such  circumstances.  What  a  year  ago  was  incredible 
has  now  happened  and  the  world  is  so  in  the  throes  of  this 
titanic  struggle  that  no  part  of  it  is  unaffected. 

You  know  what  is  happening.  You  know  that  by  a  kind 
of  improvidence  which  should  be  very  uncharacteristic  of 
America  we  have  neglected  for  several  generations  to  pro 
vide  the  means  to  carry  our  own  commerce  on  the  seas, 
and,  therefore,  being  dependent  upon  other  nations  for 
the  most  part  to  carry  our  commerce,  we  are  dependent 
upon  other  nations  now  for  the  movement  of  our  commerce 
when  other  nations  are  caught  in  the  grip  of  war.  So  that 
every  natural  impulse  of  our  peaceful  life  is  embarrassed 
and  impeded  by  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  and  wherever 
there  is  contact  there  is  apt  to  be  friction.  Wherever  the 
ordinary  rules  of  commerce  at  sea  and  of  international  re 
lationship  are  thrust  aside  or  ignored,  there  is  danger  of 
the  more  critical  kind  of  controversy.  Where  nations  are 
engaged  as  many  nations  are  now  engaged,  they  are  pecu 
liarly  likely  to  be  stubbornly  steadfast  in  the  pursuit  of 
the  purpose  which  is  the  main  purpose  of  the  moment; 
and  so,  while  we  move  among  friends,  we  move  among 

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friends  who  are  preoccupied,  preoccupied  with  an  exigent 
matter  which  is  foreign  to  our  own  life,  foreign  to  our  own 
policy,  but  which  nevertheless  inevitably  affects  our  own 
life  and  our  own  policy.  While  a  year  ago  it  seemed  im 
possible  that  a  struggle  upon  so  great  a  scale  should  last 
a  whole  twelvemonth,  it  has  now  lasted  a  year  and  a  half 
and  the  end  is  not  yet,  and  all  the  time  things  have  grown 
more  and  more  difficult  to  handle. 

It  fills  me  with  a  very  strange  feeling  sometimes,  my 
fellow  citizens,  when  it  seems  to  be  implied  that  I  am  not 
the  friend  of  peace.  If  these  gentlemen  could  have  sat  with 
me  reading  the  dispatches  and  handling  the  questions  which 
arise  every  hour  of  the  twenty-four,  they  would  have  known 
how  infinitely  difficult  it  had  been  to  maintain  the  peace 
and  they  would  have  believed  that  I  was  the  friend  of 
peace.  But  I  also  know  the  difficulties,  the  real  dangers, 
dangers  not  about  things  that  I  can  handle,  but  about  things 
that  the  other  parties  handle  and  I  can  not  control. 

It  amazes  me  to  hear  men  speak  as  if  America  stood  alone 
in  the  world  and  could  follow  her  own  life  as  she  pleased. 
We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  world  that  we  did  not  make  and 
can  not  alter;  its  atmospheric  and  physical  conditions  are  the 
conditions  of  our  own  life  also,  and  therefore,  as  your  re 
sponsible  servant,  I  must  tell  you  that  the  dangers  are  in 
finite  and  constant.  I  should  feel  that  I  was  guilty  of  an 
unpardonable  omission  if  I  did  not  go  out  and  tell  my  fellow 
countrymen  that  new  circumstances  have  arisen  which  make 
it  absolutely  necessary  that  this  country  should  prepare 
herself,  not  for  war,  not  for  anything  that  smacks  in  the 
least  of  aggression,  but  for  adequate  national  defense.  .  .  . 

What  I  want  you  to  do  is  this :  I  do  not  want  you  merely 
to  listen  to  speeches.  I  want  you  to  make  yourselves  vocal. 
I  want  you  to  let  everybody  who  comes  within  earshot  of 
it  know  that  you  are  a  partisan  for  the  adequate  preparation 
of  the  United  States  for  national  defense.  I  have  come 
to  ask  you  not  merely  to  go  home  and  say,  "The  President 

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seems  to  be  a  good  fellow  and  to  mean  what  he  says";  I 
want  you  to  go  home  determined  that  within  the  whole  circle 
of  your  influence  the  President,  not  as  a  partisan,  but  as 
the  representative  of  the  national  honor,  shall  be  backed 
up  by  the  whole  force  that  is  in  the  Nation.  .  .  . 


AT  CLEVELAND,  OHIO,  JANUARY  29,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens: 

I  suppose  that  from  the  first  America  has  had  one  pe 
culiar  and  particular  mission  in  the  world.  Other  nations 
have  grown  rich,  my  fellow  citizens,  other  nations  have  been 
as  powerful  as  we  in  material  resources  in  comparison  with 
the  other  nations  of  the  world,  other  nations  have  built  up 
empires  and  exercised  dominion ;  we  are  not  peculiar  in  any 
of  these  things,  but  we  are  peculiar  in  this,  that  from  the 
first  we  have  dedicated  our  force  to  the  service  of  justice 
and  righteousness  and  peace.  We  have  said:  "Our  chief 
interest  is  not  in  the  rights  of  property,  but  in  the  rights 
of  men;  our  chief  interest  is  in  the  spirits  of  men  that  they 
might  be  free,  that  they  might  enjoy  their  lives  unmolested 
so  long  as  they  observed  the  just  rules  of  the  game,  that 
they  might  deal  with  their  fellowmen  with  their  heads  erect, 
the  subjects  and  servants  of  no  man;  the  servants  only  of 
the  principles  upon  which  their  lives  rested."  And  Amer 
ica  has  done  more  than  care  for  her  own  people  and  think 
of  her  own  fortunes  in  these  great  matters.  She  has  said 
ever  since  the  time  of  President  Monroe  that  she  was  the 
champion  of  the  freedom  and  the  separate  sovereignty  of 
peoples  throughout  the  Western  Hemisphere.  She  is  trustee 
for  these  ideals  and  she  is  pledged,  deeply  and  permanently 
pledged,  to  keep  these  momentous  promises. 

She  not  only,  therefore,  must  play  her  part  in  keeping 
this  conflagration  from  spreading  to  the  people  of  the 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

United  States;  she  must  also  keep  this  conflagration  from 
spreading  on  this  side  of  the  sea.  These  are  matters  in 
which  our  very  life  and  our  whole  pride  are  embedded  and 
rooted,  and  we  can  never  draw  back  from  them.  And  I, 
my  fellow  citizens,  because  of  the  extraordinary  office  with 
which  you  have  intrusted  me,  must,  whether  I  will  or  not, 
be  your  responsible  spokesman  in  these  great  matters.  It 
is  my  duty,  therefore,  when  impressions  are  deeply  borne 
in  upon  me  with  regard  to  the  national  welfare  to  speak 
to  you  with  the  utmost  frankness  about  them,  and  that  is 
the  errand  upon  which  I  have  come  away  from  Wash 
ington. 

For  my  own  part,  I  am  sorry  that  these  things  fall  within 
the  year  of  a  national  political  campaign.  They  ought  to 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  politics.  The  man  who 
brings  partisan  feeling  into  these  matters  and  seeks  par 
tisan  advantage  by  means  of  them  is  unworthy  of  your 
confidence.  I  am  sorry  that  upon  the  eve  of  a  campaign 
we  should  be  obliged  to  discuss  these  things,  for  fear  they 
might  run  over  into  the  campaign  and  seem  to  constitute 
a  part  of  it.  Let  us  forget  that  this  is  a  year  of  national 
elections.  That  is  neither  here  nor  there.  The  thing  to 
do  now  is  for  all  men  of  all  parties  to  think  along  the  same 
lines  and  do  the  same  things  and  forget  every  difference 
that  may  have  divided  them. 

And  what  ought  they  to  do?  In  the  first  place,  they 
ought  to  tell  the  truth.  There  have  been  some  extraordinary 
exaggerations  both  of  the  military  weakness  and  the  mili 
tary  strength  of  this  country.  Some  men  tell  you  that  we 
have  no  means  of  defense  and  others  tell  you  that  we 
have  sufficient  means  of  defense,  and  neither  statement  is 
true.  Take,  for  example,  the  matter  of  our  coast  defenses. 
It  is  obvious  to  every  man  that  they  are  of  the  most  vital 
importance  to  the  country.  Such  coast  defenses  as  we  have 
are  strong  and  admirable,  but  we  have  not  got  coast  de 
fenses  in  enough  places.  Their  quality  is  admirable,  but 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

their  quantity  is  insufficient.  The  military  authorities  of 
this  country  have  not  been  negligent;  they  have  sought 
adequate  appropriations  from  Congress,  and  in  most  in 
stances  have  obtained  them,  so  far  as  we  saw  the  work  in 
hand  that  it  was  necessary  to  do,  and  the  work  that  they 
have  done  in  the  use  of  these  appropriations  has  been  ad 
mirable  and  skillful  work.  Do  not  let  anybody  deceive 
you  into  supposing  that  the  Army  of  the  United  States, 
so  far  as  it  has  had  opportunity,  is  in  any  degree  unworthy 
of  your  confidence. 

And  the  Navy  of  the  United  States.  You  have  been  told 
that  it  is  the  second  in  strength  in  the  world.  I  am  sorry 
to  say  that  experts  do  not  agree  with  those  who  tell  you 
that.  Reckoning  by  its  actual  strength,  I  believe  it  to  be 
one  of  the  most  efficient  navies  in  the  world,  but  in  strength 
it  ranks  fourth,  not  second.  You  must  reckon  with  the 
fact  that  it  is  necessary  that  that  should  be  our  first  arm  of 
defense,  and  you  ought  to  insist  that  everything  should  be 
done  that  it  is  possible  for  us  to  do  to  bring  the  Navy  up 
to  an  adequate  standard  of  strength  and  efficiency. 

Where  we  are  chiefly  lacking  in  preparation  is  on  land 
and  in  the  number  of  men  who  are  ready  to  fight.  Not  the 
number  of  fighting  men,  but  the  number  of  men  who  are 
ready  to  fight.  Some  men  are  born  troublesome,  some  men 
have  trouble  thrust  upon  them,  and  other  men  acquire 
trouble.  I  think  I  belong  to  the  second  class.  But  the 
characteristic  desire  of  America  is  not  that  she  should  have 
a  great  body  of  men  whose  chief  business  is  to  fight,  but 
a  great  body  of  men  who  know  how  to  fight  and  are  ready 
to  fight  when  anything  that  is  dear  to  the  Nation  is  threat 
ened.  You  might  have  what  we  have,  millions  of  men  who 
had  never  handled  arms  of  war,  who  are  mere  material  for 
shot  and  powder  if  you  put  them  in  the  field,  and  America 
would  be  ashamed  of  the  inefficiency  of  calling  such  men  to 
defend  the  Nation.  What  we  want  is  to  associate  in  train 
ing  with  the  Army  of  the  United  States  men  who  will  vol- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

unteer  for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  every  year  to  get  a 
rudimentary  acquaintance  with  arms,  a  rudimentary  skill 
in  handling  them,  a  rudimentary  acquaintance  with  camp 
life,  a  rudimentary  acquaintance  with  military  drill  and 
discipline;  and  we  ought  to  see  to  it  that  we  have  men  of 
that  sort  in  sufficient  number  to  constitute  an  initial  army 
when  we  need  an  army  for  the  defense  of  the  country. 

I  have  heard  it  stated  that  there  are  probably  several 
million  men  in  this  country  who  have  received  a  sufficient 
amount  of  military  drill  either  here  or  in  the  countries  in 
which  they  were  born  and  from  which  they  have  come  to 
us.  Perhaps  there  are,  nobody  knows,  because  there  is 
no  means  of  counting  them;  but  if  there  are  so  many,  they 
are  not  obliged  to  come  at  our  call;  we  do  not  know  who 
they  are.  That  is  not  military  preparation.  Military  prep 
aration  consists  in  the  existence  of  such  a  body  of  men 
known  to  the  Federal  authorities,  organized  provisionally 
by  the  Federal  authorities,  and  subject  by  their  own  choice 
and  will  to  the  immediate  call  of  the  Federal  authorities. 

We  have  no  such  body  of  men  in  the  United  States  ex 
cept  the  National  Guard.  Now,  I  have  a  very  great  respect 
for  the  National  Guard.  I  have  been  associated  with  one 
section  of  that  guard  in  one  of  the  great  States  of  the 
Union,  and  I  know  the  character  of  the  officers  and  the 
quality  of  the  men,  and  I  would  trust  them  unhesitatingly 
both  for  skill  and  for  efficiency,  but  the  whole  National 
Guard  of  the  United  States  falls  short  of  130,000  men.  It 
is  characterized  by  a  very  great  variety  of  discipline  and 
efficiency  as  between  State  and  State,  and  it  is  by  the  Con 
stitution  itself  put  under  authority  of  more  than  two  score 
State  executives.  The  President  of  the  United  States  has 
not  the  right  to  call  on  these  men  except  in  the  case  of 
actual  invasion,  and,  therefore,  no  matter  how  skillful 
they  are,  no  matter  how  ready  they  are,  they  are  not  the 
instruments  for  immediate  National  use.  I  believe  that  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  ought  to  do,,  and  that  it  will 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

do,  a  great  deal  more  for  the  National  Guard  than  it  ever 
has  done,  and  everything  ought  to  be  done  to  make  it  a  model 
military  arm. 

But  that  is  not  the  arm  that  we  are  immediately  inter 
ested  in.  We  are  interested  in  making  certain  that  there 
are  men  all  over  the  United  States  prepared,  equipped,  and 
ready  to  go  out  at  the  call  of  the  National  Government 
upon  the  shortest  possible  notice.  You  will  ask  me,  "Why 
do  you  say  the  shortest  possible  notice?"  Because,  gentle 
men,  let  me  tell  you  very  solemnly  you  can  not  afford  to 
postpone  this  thing.  I  do  not  know  what  a  single  day  may 
bring  forth.  I  do  not  wish  to  leave  you  with  the  impression 
that  I  am  thinking  of  some  particular  danger;  I  merely 
want  to  leave  you  with  this  solemn  impression,  that  I 
know  that  we  are  daily  treading  amidst  the  most  intricate 
dangers,  and  that  the  dangers  that  we  are  treading  amongst 
are  not  of  our  making  and  are  not  under  our  control,  and 
that  no  man  in  the  United  States  knows  what  a  single  week 
or  a  single  day  or  a  single  hour  may  bring  forth.  These 
are  solemn  things  to  say  to  you,  but  I  would  be  unworthy 
of  my  office  if  I  did  not  come  out  and  tell  you  with  abso 
lute  frankness  just  exactly  what  I  understand  the  situation 
to  be. 

I  do  not  wish  to  hurry  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
These  things  are  too  important  to  be  put  through  without 
very  thorough  sifting  and  debate  and  I  am  not  in  the  least 
jealous  of  any  of  the  searching  processes  of  discussion. 
That  is  what  free  people  are  for,  to  understand  what  they 
are  about  and  to  do  what  they  wish  to  do  only  if  they  un 
derstand  what  they  are  about.  But  it  is  impossible  to  dis 
cuss  the  details  of  plans  in  great  bodies,  unorganized  bodies, 
of  men  like  this  audience,  for  example.  All  that  I  can  do 
in  this  presence  is  to  tell  you  what  I  know  of  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  case,  and  to  ask  you  to  stand  back  of  the  execu 
tive  authorities  of  the  United  States  in  urging  upon  those 
who  make  our  laws  as  early  and  effective  action  as  possible. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

America  is  not  afraid  of  anybody.  I  know  that  I  ex 
press  your  feeling  and  the  feeling  of  all  our  fellow  citizens 
when  I  say  that  the  only  thing  I  am  afraid  of  is  not  being 
ready  to  perform  my  duty.  I  am  afraid  of  the  danger  of 
shame;  I  am  afraid  of  the  danger  of  inadequacy;  I  am 
afraid  of  the  danger  of  not  being  able  to  express  the  great 
character  of  this  country  with  tremendous  might  and  ef 
fectiveness  whenever  we  are  called  upon  to  act  in  the  field 
of  the  world's  affairs. 

For  it  is  character  we  are  going  to  express,  not  power 
merely.  The  United  States  is  not  in  love  with  the  ag 
gressive  use  of  power.  It  despises  the  aggressive  use  of 
power.  There  is  not  a  foot  of  territory  belonging  to  any 
other  nation  which  this  Nation  covets  or  desires.  There 
is  not  a  privilege  which  we  ourselves  enjoy  that  we  would 
dream  of  denying  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  If  there 
is  one  thing  that  the  American  people  love  and  believe  in 
more  than  another  it  is  peace  and  all  the  handsome  things 
that  belong  to  peace.  I  hope  that  you  will  bear  me  out 
in  saying  that  I  have  proved  that  I  am  a  partisan  of  peace. 
I  would  be  ashamed  to  be  belligerent  and  impatient  when 
the  fortunes  of  my  whole  country  and  the  happiness  of 
all  my  fellow  countrymen  were  involved.  But  I  know  that 
peace  is  not  always  within  the  choice  of  the  Nation,  and  I 
want  to  remind  you,  and  remind  you  very  solemnly,  of  the 
double  obligation  you  have  laid  upon  me.  I  know  you  have 
laid  it  upon  me  because  I  am  constantly  reminded  of  it  in 
conversation,  by  letter,  in  editorial,  by  means  of  every  voice 
that  comes  to  me  out  of  the  body  of  the  Nation.  You  have 
laid  upon  me  this  double  obligation :  "We  are  relying  upon 
you,  Mr.  President,  to  keep  us  out  of  this  war,  but  we  are 
relying  upon  you,  Mr.  President,  to  keep  the  honor  of  the 
Nation  unstained." 

Do  you  not  see  that  a  time  may  come  when  it  is  im 
possible  to  do  both  of  these  things?  Do  you  not  see  that 
if  I  am  to  guard  the  honor  of  the  Nation,  I  am  not  pro- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

tecting  it  against  itself,  for  we  are  not  going  to  do  any 
thing  to  stain  tho  honor  of  our  own  country.  I  am  pro 
tecting  it  against  things  that  I  cannot  control,  the  action 
of  others.  And  where  the  action  of  others  may  bring  us 
I  cannot  foretell.  You  may  count  upon  my  heart  and  reso 
lution  to  keep  you  out  of  the  war,  but  you  must  be  ready 
if  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  maintain  your  honor.  That 
is  the  only  thing  a  real  man  loves  about  himself.  Some  men 
who  are  not  real  men  love  other  things  about  themselves, 
but  the  real  man  believes  that  his  honor  is  dearer  than  his 
life;  and  a  nation  is  merely  all  of  us  put  together,  and  the 
Nation's  honor  is  dearer  than  the  Nation's  comfort  and  the 
Nation's  peace  and  the  Nation's  life  itself.  .  .  . 

AT  MILWAUKEE,  Wis.,  JANUARY  31,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens : 

I  need  not  inquire  whether  the  citizens  of  Milwaukee 
and  Wisconsin  are  interested  in  the  subject  of  my  errand. 
The  presence  of  this  great  body  in  this  vast  hall  sufficiently 
attests  your  interest,  but  I  want  at  the  outset  to  remove 
a  misapprehension  that  I  fear  may  exist  in  your  mind. 
There  is  no  sudden  crisis;  nothing  new  has  happened;  I 
am  not  out  upon  this  errand  because  of  any  unexpected  situ 
ation.  I  have  come  to  confer  with  you  upon  a  matter  upon 
which  it  would,  in  any  circumstances,  be  necessary  for  us 
to  confer  when  all  the  rest  of  the  world  is  on  fire  and  our 
own  house  is  not  fireproof.  Everywhere  the  atmosphere 
of  the  world  is  thrilling  with  the  passion  of  a  disturbance 
such  as  the  world  has  never  seen  before,  and  it  is  wise, 
in  the  words  just  uttered  by  your  chairman,  that  we  should 
see  that  our  own  house  is  set  in  order  and  that  everything 
is  done  to  make  certain  that  we  shall  not  suffer  by  the 
general  conflagration. 

There  were  some  dangers  to  which  this  Nation  seemed 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

at  the  outset  of  the  war  to  be  exposed,  which,  I  think  I 
can  say  with  confidence,  are  now  passed  and  overcome. 
America  has  drawn  her  blood  and  her  strength  out  of  al 
most  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  It  is  true  of  a  great 
many  of  us  that  there  lies  deep  in  our  hearts  the  recollec 
tion  of  an  origin  which  is  not  American.  We  are  aware 
that  our  roots,  our  traditions,  run  back  into  other  national 
soils.  There  are  songs  that  stir  us;  there  are  some  far 
away  historical  recollections  which  engage  our  affections 
and  stir  our  memories.  We  can  not  forget  our  forbears; 
we  can  not  altogether  ignore  the  fact  of  our  essential  blood 
relationship;  and  at  the  outset  of  this  war  it  did  look  as 
if  there  were  a  division  of  domestic  sentiment  which  might 
lead  us  to  some  errors  of  judgment  and  some  errors  of 
action ;  but  I,  for  one,  believe  that  danger  is  passed.  .  .  . 
I  have  at  no  time  supposed  that  the  men  whose  voices 
seemed  to  contain  the  threat  of  division  amongst  us  were 
really  uttering  the  sentiments  even  of  those  whom  they 
pretended  to  represent.  I  for  my  part  have  no  jealousy 
of  family  sentiment.  I  have  no  jealousy  of  that  deep  af 
fection  which  runs  back  through  long  lineage.  It  would 
be  a  pity  if  we  forget  the  fine  things  that  our  ancestors 
have  done.  But  I  also  know  the  magic  of  America;  I  also 
know  the  great  principles  which  thrill  men  in  the  singular 
body  politic  to  which  we  belong  in  the  United  States.  I 
know  the  impulses  which  have  drawn  men  to  our  shores. 
They  have  not  come  idly;  they  have  not  come  without  con 
scious  purpose  to  be  free;  they  have  not  come  without  vol 
untary  desire  to  unite  themselves  with  the  great  nation  on 
this  side  of  the  sea;  and  I  know  that  whenever  the  test 
comes  every  man's  heart  will  be  first  for  America.  It  was 
principle  and  affection  and  ambition  and  hope  that  drew 
men  to  these  shores,  and  they  are  not  going  to  forget  the 
errand  upon  which  they  came  and  allow  America,  the  home 
of  their  refuge  and  hope,  to  suffer  by  any  forgetfulness 
on  their  part.  And  so  the  trouble  makers  have  shot  their 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

bolt,  and  it  has  been  ineffectual.  Some  of  them  have  been 
vociferous ;  all  of  them  have  been  exceedingly  irresponsible. 
Talk  was  cheap,  and  that  was  all  it  cost  them.  They  did 
not  have  to  do  anything.  But  you  will  know  without  my 
telling  you  that  the  man  who  for  the  time  being  you  have 
charged  with  the  duties  of  President  of  the  United  States 
must  talk  with  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility,  and  he  must 
remember,  above  all  things  else,  the  fine  traditions  of  his 
office  which  some  men  seem  to  have  forgotten.  There  is  no 
precedent  in  American  history  for  any  action  of  aggression 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States  or  for  any  action  which 
might  mean  that  America  is  seeking  to  connect  herself  with 
the  controversies  on  the  other  side  of  the  water.  Men  who 
seek  to  provoke  us  to  such  action  have  forgotten  the  tradi 
tions  of  the  United  States,  but  it  behooves  those  with  whom 
you  have  entrusted  office  to  remember  the  traditions  of  the 
United  States  and  to  see  to  it  that  the  actions  of  the  Gov 
ernment  are  made  to  square  with  those  traditions.  .  .  . 

Our  thoughts  are  concentrated  upon  our  own  affairs  and 
our  own  relations  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  the  thoughts 
of  the  men  who  are  engaged  in  this  struggle  are  concen 
trated  upon  the  struggle  itself,  and  there  is  daily  and  hourly 
danger  that  they  will  feel  themselves  constrained  to  do 
things  which  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of 
the  United  States.  They  are  not  thinking  of  us.  I  am 
not  criticizing  them  for  not  thinking  of  us.  I  dare  say  if  I 
were  in  their  place  neither  would  I  think  of  us.  They  be 
lieve  that  they  are  struggling  for  the  lives  and  honor  of 
their  nations,  and  that  if  the  United  States  puts  its  interests 
in  the  path  of  this  great  struggle,  she  ought  to  know  be 
forehand  that  there  is  danger  of  very  serious  misunder 
standing  and  difficulty.  So  that  the  very  uncalculating, 
unpremeditated,  one  might  almost  say  accidental,  course 
of  affairs,  may  touch  us  to  the  quick  at  any  moment,  and  I 
want  you  to  realize  that,  standing  in  the  midst  of  these 
Difficulties,  I  feel  that  I  am  charged  with  a  double  duty 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

of  the  utmost  difficulty.  In  the  first  place,  I  know  that  you 
are  depending  upon  me  to  keep  this  Nation  out  of  the  war. 
So  far  I  have  done  so,  and  I  pledge  you  my  word  that,  God 
helping  me,  I  will  if  it  is  possible.  But  you  have  laid  an 
other  duty  upon  me.  You  have  bidden  me  see  to  it  that 
nothing  stains  or  impairs  the  honor  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  is  a  matter  not  within  my  control;  that  depends 
upon  what  others  do,  not  upon  what  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  does.  Therefore,  there  may  at  any  mo 
ment  come  a  time  when  I  can  not  preserve  both  the  honor 
and  the  peace  of  the  United  States.  Do  not  exact  of  me 
an  impossible  and  contradictory  thing,  but  stand  ready  and 
insistent  that  everybody  who  represents  you  should  stand 
ready  to  provide  the  necessary  means  for  maintaining  the 
honor  of  the  United  States. 

I  sometimes  think  that  it  is  true  that  no  people  ever  went 
to  war  with  another  people.  Governments  have  gone  to 
war  with  one  another.  Peoples,  so  far  as  I  remember,  have 
not,  and  this  is  a  government  of  the  people,  and  this  people 
is  not  going  to  choose  war.  But  we  are  not  dealing  with 
people ;  we  are  dealing  with  Governments.  We  are  dealing 
with  Governments  now  engaged  in  a  great  struggle,  and 
therefore  we  do  not  know  what  a  day  or  an  hour  will  bring 
forth.  All  that  we  know  is  the  character  of  our  own  duty. 
We  do  not  want  the  question  of  peace  and  war,  or  the  con 
duct  of  war,  entrusted  too  entirely  to  our  Government.  We 
want  war,  if  it  must  come,  to  be  something  that  springs  out 
of  the  sentiments  and  principles  and  actions  of  the  people 
themselves;  and  it  is  on  that  account  that  I  am  counseling 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  not  to  take  the  advice 
of  those  who  recommend  that  we  should  have,  and  have 
very  soon,  a  great  standing  Army,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
to  see  to  it  that  the  citizens  of  this  country  are  so  trained 
and  that  the  military  equipment  is  so  sufficiently  provided 
for  them  that  when  they  choose  they  can  take  up  arms  and 
defend  themselves. 

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The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  makes  the  Presi 
dent  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
Nation,  but  I  do  not  want  a  big  Army  subject  to  my  per 
sonal  command.  If  danger  comes,  I  want  to  turn  to  you 
and  the  rest  of  my  fellow  countrymen  and  say,  "Men,  are 
you  ready?"  and  I  know  what  the  response  will  be.  I  know 
that  there  will  spring  up  out  of  the  body  of  the  Nation  a 
great  host  of  free  men,  and  I  want  those  men  not  to  be 
mere  targets  for  shot  and  shell.  I  want  them  to  know 
something  of  the  arms  they  have  in  their  hands.  I  want 
them  to  know  something  about  how  to  guard  against  the 
diseases  that  creep  into  camps,  where  men  are  unaccus 
tomed  to  live.  I  want  them  to  know  something  of  what  the 
orders  mean  that  they  will  be  under  when  they  enlist  under 
arms  for  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  I  want 
them  to  be  men  who  can  comprehend  and  easily  and  intelli 
gently  step  into  the  duty  of  national  defense.  That  is  the 
reason  that  I  am  urging  upon  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  at  any  rate  the  beginnings  of  a  system  by  which 
we  may  give  a  very  considerable  body  of  our  fellow  citizens 
the  necessary  training.  .  .  . 

It  is  being  very  sedulously  spread  abroad  in  this  country 
that  the  impulse  back  of  all  this  is  the  desire  of  men  who 
make  the  materials  of  warfare  to  get  money  out  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States.  I  wish  the  people  that  say 
that  could  see  meetings  like  this.  Did  you  come  here  for 
that  purpose?  Did  you  come  here  because  you  are  inter 
ested  to  see  some  of  your  fellow  citizens  make  money  out 
of  the  present  situation?  Of  course  you  did  not.  I  am 
ready  to  admit  that  probably  the  equipment  of  those  men 
whom  we  are  training  will  have  to  be  bought  from  some 
body,  and  I  know  that  if  the  equipment  is  bought,  it  will 
have  to  be  paid  for;  and  I  dare  say  somebody  will  make 
some  money  out  of  it.  It  is  also  true,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
that  there  are  men  now,  a  great  many  men,  in  the  belligerent 
countries  who  are  growing  rich  out  of  the  sale  of  the  ma- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

terials  needed  by  the  armies  of  those  countries.  If  the 
Government  itself  does  not  manufacture  everything  that 
an  army  needs,  somebody  has  got  to  make  money  out  of 
it,  and  I  for  my  part  have  been  urging  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  to  make  the  necessary  preparations  by  which 
the  Government  can  manufacture  armor  plate  and  muni 
tions,  so  that,  being  in  the  business  itself  and  having  the 
ability  to  manufacture  all  it  needs,  if  it  is  put  upon  a  busi 
ness  basis,  it  can  at  any  rate  keep  the  price  that  it  pays 
within  moderate  and  reasonable  limits.  The  Government 
of  the  United  States  is  not  going  to  be  imposed  upon  by 
anybody,  and  you  may  rest  assured,  therefore,  that  while  I 
believe  you  prefer  fhat  private  capital  and  private  initia 
tive  should  bestir  themselves  in  these  matters,  it  is  also 
possible,  and  I  assure  you  that  it  is  most  likely,  that  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  will  have  adequate  means 
of  controlling  this  matter  very  thoroughly  indeed.  There 
need  be  no  fear  on  that  side.  Let  nobody  suppose  that  this 
is  a  money-making  agitation.  I  would  for  one  be  ashamed 
to  be  such  a  dupe  as  to  be  engaged  in  it  if  it  had  any  sus 
picion  of  that  about  it,  but  I  am  not  as  innocent  as  I  look; 
and  I  believe  that  I  can  say  for  my  colleagues  in  Washing 
ton  that  they  are  just  as  watchful  in  such  matters  as  you 
would  desire  them  to  be. 

And  there  is  another  misapprehension  that  I  do  not 
wish  you  to  entertain.  Do  not  suppose  that  there  is  any 
new  or  sudden  or  recent  inadequacy  on  the  part  of  this 
Government  in  respect  of  preparation  for  national  defense. 
I  have  heard  some  gentlemen  say  that  we  had  no  coast 
defenses  worth  talking  about.  Coast  defenses  are  not  nowa 
days  advertised,  you  understand,  and  they  are  not  visible 
to  the  naked  eye,  so  that  if  you  passed  them  and  nothing 
exploded,  you  would  not  know  they  were  there.  The  coast 
defenses  of  the  United  States,  while  not  numerous  enough, 
are  equipped  in  the  most  modern  and  efficient  fashion.  You 
are  told  that  there  has  been  some  sort  of  neglect  about 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

the  Navy.  There  has  not  been  any  sort  of  neglect  about 
the  Navy.  We  have  been  slowly  building  up  a  Navy  which 
in  quality  is  second  to  no  navy  in  the  world.  The  only  thing 
it  lacks  is  quantity.  In  size  it  is  the  fourth  navy  in  the 
world,  though  I  have  heard  it  said  by  some  gentlemen  in 
this  very  region  that  it  was  the  second.  In  fighting  force,, 
though  not  in  quality,  it  is  reckoned  by  experts  to  be  the 
fourth  in  rank  in  the  world;  and  yet  when  I  go  on  board 
those  ships  and  see  their  equipment  and  talk  with  their  offi 
cers  I  suspect  that  they  could  give  an  account  of  themselves 
which  would  raise  them  above  the  fourth  class.  It  reminds 
me  of  that  very  quaint  saying  of  the  old  darky  preacher, 
"The  Lord  says  unto  Moses,  come  fourth,  and  he  came  fifth 
and  lost  the  race."  But  I  think  this  Navy  would  not  come 
fourth  in  the  race,  but  higher. 

What  we  are  proposing  now  is  not  the  sudden  creation 
of  a  Navy,  for  we  have  a  splendid  Navy,  but  the  definite 
working  out  of  a  program  by  which  within  five  years  we 
shall  bring  the  Navy  to  a  fighting  strength  which  otherwise 
might  have  taken  eight  or  ten  years;  along  exactly  the 
same  lines  of  development  that  have  been  followed  and  fol 
lowed  diligently  and  intelligently  for  at  least  a  decade  past. 
There  is  no  sudden  panic,  there  is  no  sudden  change  of 
plan;  all  that  has  happened  is  that  we  now  see  that  we 
ought  more  rapidly  and  more  thoroughly  than  ever  before 
to  do  the  things  which  have  always  been  characteristic  of 
America.  For  she  has  always  been  proud  of  her  Navy  and 
has  always  been  addicted  to  the  principle  that  her  citizen 
ship  must  do  the  fighting  on  land.  We  are  working  out 
American  principle  a  little  faster,  because  American  pulses 
are  beating  a  little  faster,  because  the  world  is  in  a  whirl, 
because  there  are  incalculable  elements  of  trouble  abroad 
which  we  cannot  control  or  alter.  I  would  be  derelict  to 
the  duty  which  you  have  laid  upon  me  if  I  did  not  tell  you 
that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  carry  out  our  principles 
in  this  matter  now  and  at  once.  .  .  . 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

Av  CHICAGO,  ILL -,  JANUARY  31,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens: 

A  year  ago,  though  the  war  in  Europe  had  then  been 
six  months  in  progress,  I  take  it  it  would  have  seemed  in 
credible  to  all  of  us  that  the  storm  should  continue  to  gather 
in  intensity  instead  of  spending  its  force.  I  suppose  that 
twelve  months  ago  no  one  could  have  predicted  the  ex 
traordinary  way  in  which  the  violence  of  the  struggle  has 
increased  from  month  to  month ;  and  the  difficulties  involved 
by  reason  of  that  war  have  also  increased  beyond  all  cal 
culation.  A  year  ago  it  did  seem  as  if  America  might  rest 
secure  without  very  great  anxiety  and  take  it  for  granted 
that  she  would  not  be  drawn  into  this  terrible  maelstrom, 
but  those  first  six  months  was  merely  the  beginning  of  the 
struggle.  Another  year  has  been  added,  and  now  no  man 
can  confidently  say  whether  the  United  States  will  be  drawn 
into  the  struggle  or  not.  Therefore,  it  is  absolutely  nec 
essary  that  we  should  take  counsel  together  as  to  what  it  is 
necessary  that  we  should  do.  .  .  . 

Have  you  not  realized  how  all  the  world  seems  to  have 
been  constantly  conscious  from  the  beginning  of  this  struggle 
that  America  was,  so  to  say,  the  only  audience  before  whom 
this  terrible  plot  was  being  worked  out;  how  everybody 
engaged  in  the  struggle  has  seemed  to  turn  to  America  for 
moral  judgments  concerning  it;  how  each  side  in  the  titanic 
struggle  has  appealed  to  us  to  adjudge  their  enemies  in  the 
wrong;  how  there  has  been  no  tragical  turn  in  the  course 
of  events  that  America  has  not  been  called  on  for  some  sort 
of  protest  or  expression  of  opinion?  And  so  those  of  us 
who  are  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  affairs  have 
realized  very  intensely  that  there  was  a  certain  sense  in 
which  America  was  looked  to  to  keep  even  the  balance  of 
the  whole  world's  thought. 

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And  America  was  called  upon  to  do  something  very  much 
more  than  that  even;  profoundly  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
though  that  be,  she  was  called  upon  to  assert  in  times  of 
war  the  standards  of  times  of  peace.  There  is  an  old  say 
ing  that  the  laws  are  silent  in  the  presence  of  war.  Alas, 
yes;  not  only  the  civil  laws  of  individual  nations  but  also 
apparently  the  law  that  governs  the  relation  of  nations 
with  one  another  must  at  times  fall  silent  and  look  on  in 
dumb  impotency.  And  yet  it  has  been  assumed  throughout 
this  struggle  that  the  great  principles  of  international  law 
and  of  international  comity  had  not  been  suspended,  and 
the  United  States,  as  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  of  the 
disengaged  nations,  has  been  looked  to  to  hold  high  the 
standards  which  should  govern  the  relationship  of  nations 
to  each  other. 

I  know  that  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  there  has  been 
a  great  deal  of  cruel  mis  judgment  with  regard  to  the  rea 
sons  why  America  has  remained  neutral.  Those  who  look 
at  us  at  a  distance,  my  fellow  citizens,  do  not  feel  the 
strong  pulses  of  ideal  principle  that  are  in  us.  They  do  not 
feel  the  conviction  of  America,  that  her  mission  is  a  mission 
of  peace,  and  that  righteousness  can  be  maintained  as  a 
standard  in  the  midst  of  arms.  They  do  not  realize  that 
back  of  all  our  energy  by  which  we  have  built  up  great 
material  wealth  and  created  great  material  power  we  are 
a  body  of  idealists,  much  more  ready  to  lay  down  our  lives 
for  a  thought  than  for  a  dollar.  They  suppose,  some  of 
them,  that  we  are  holding  off  because  we  can  make  money 
while  others  are  dying,  the  most  cruel  misunderstanding  that 
any  nation  has  ever  had  to  face;  so  wrong  that  it  seems 
almost  useless  to  try  to  correct  it,  because  it  shows  that 
the  very  fundamentals  of  our  life  are  not  comprehended 
and  understood. 

I  need  not  tell  you,  my  fellow  citizens,  that  we  have  not 
held  off  from  this  struggle  from  motives  of  self-interest, 
unless  it  be  considered  self-interest  to  maintain  our  posi- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

tion  as  the  trustees  of  the  moral  judgment  of  the  world. 
We  have  believed,  and  I  believe,  that  we  can  serve  even 
the  nations  at  war  better  by  remaining  at  peace  and  holding 
off  from  this  contest  than  we  could  possibly  serve  them  in 
any  other  way.  Your  interest,  your  sympathy,  your  affec 
tions  may  be  engaged  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  but  no 
matter  which  side  they  are  engaged  on  it  is  your  duty  even 
to  your  affections  in  this  great  affair  to  stand  off  and  not 
let  this  Nation  be  drawn  into  the  war.  Somebody  must  keep 
the  great  stable  foundations  of  the  life  of  nations  untouched 
and  undisturbed.  Somebody  must  keep  the  great  economic 
processes  of  the  world  of  business  alive.  Somebody  must 
see  to  it  that  we  stand  ready  to  repair  the  enormous  damage 
and  the  incalculable  losses  which  will  ensue  from  this  war, 
and  which  it  is  hardly  credible  could  be  repaired  if  every 
great  nation  in  the  world  were  drawn  into  the  contest.  Do 
you  realize  how  nearly  it  has  come  about  that  every  great 
nation  in  the  world  has  been  drawn  in?  The  flame  has 
touched  even  our  own  continent  by  drawing  in  our  Canadian 
neighbors  to  the  north  of  us,  and,  except  for  the  South 
American  Continent,  there  is  not  one  continent  upon  the 
whole  surface  of  the  world  to  which  this  flame  has  not 
spread;  and  when  I  see  some  of  my  fellow  citizens  spread 
tinder  where  the  sparks  are  falling,  I  wonder  what  their 
ideal  of  Americanism  is.  ... 

Look  at  the  task  that  is  assigned  to  the  United  States, 
to  assert  the  principles  of  law  in  a  world  in  which  the  prin 
ciples  of  law  have  broken  down — not  the  technical  prin 
ciples  of  law,  but  the  essential  principles  of  right  dealing 
and  humanity  as  between  nation  and  nation.  Law  is  a  very 
complicated  term.  It  includes  a  great  many  things  that  do 
not  engage  our  affections,  but  at  the  basis  of  the  things 
that  we  are  now  dealing  with  lie  the  deepest  affections  of 
the  human  heart,  the  love  of  life,  the  love  of  righteousness, 
the  love  of  fair  dealing,  the  love  of  those  things  that  are 
just  and  of  good  report.  The  things  that  are  rooted  in 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

our  very  spirit  are  the  stuff  of  the  law  that  I  am  talking 
about  now. 

We  may  have  to  assert  these  principles  of  right  and  of 
humanity  at  any  time.  What  means  are  available?  What 
force  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  United  States  to  assert  these 
things  ?  The  force  of  opinion  ?  Opinion,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  my  fellow  citizens,,  did  not  bring  this  war  on,  and  I 
am  afraid  that  opinion  can  not  stay  its  progress.  This 
war  was  brought  on  by  rulers,  not  by  the  people;  and  I 
thank  God  that  there  is  no  man  in  America  who  has  the 
authority  to  bring  war  on  without  the  consent  of  the  people. 
No  man  for  many  a  year  yet  can  trace  the  real  sources  of 
this  war,  but  this  thing  we  know,  that  opinion  did  not  bring 
it  on  and  that  the  force  of  opinion,  at  any  rate  the  force  of 
American  opinion,  is  not  going  to  stop  it. 

I  admire  the  hopeful  confidence  of  those  of  our  fellow 
citizens  who  believe  that  American  opinion  can  stop  it, 
but,  being  somewhat  older  than  some  of  them,  and  having 
run  through  a  rather  wide  gamut  of  experience,  I  am  pre 
vented  from  sharing  their  hopeful  optimism.  I  would  not 
belittle  the  influences  of  opinion,  least  of  all  the  influences 
of  American  opinion — it  is  very  influential — but  it  will  not 
stop  this  overwhelming  flood.  And,  if  not  the  force  of 
opinion,  what  force  has  America  available  to  stop  the  flood 
from  overflowing  her  own  fair  area? 

We  have  one  considerable  arm  of  force,  a  very  consider 
able  arm  of  force,  namely,  the  splendid  Navy  of  the  United 
States.  I  am  told  by  the  experts,  to  whose  judgment  I 
must  defer  in  these  matters,  that  the  Navy  of  the  United 
States,  in  respect  of  its  enumerated  force,  ranks  only  fourth 
among  the  navies  of  the  world.  I  indulge  myself  in  the 
opinion  that  in  quality  it  ranks  very  much  higher  than 
fourth  place.  The  United  States  has  never  been  negligent 
of  its  Navy,  despite  what  some  gentlemen  may  say;  least 
of  all  has  it  been  negligent  in  recent  years.  Three  years 
ago  there  were  182  vessels  in  commission  in  that  Navy; 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

there  are  now  238.  Three  dreadnoughts  and  fifteen  subor 
dinate  craft  will  be  added  within  a  month  or  two.  There 
have  been  added  six  thousand  capable  sailors  to  the  ranks 
of  the  enlisted  men  of  that  Navy.  The  Congress  of  the 
United  States  in  the  last  three  years  has  poured  out  more 
money  than  was  poured  out  on  the  average  in  any  previous 
years  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  for  the  mainte 
nance  and  upbuilding  of  the  United  States  Navy;  has  spent 
forty-four  million  dollars  a  year  as  contrasted  with  a  pre 
vious  average  of  not  more  than  thirty-three  and  a  half  mil 
lion.  All  the  subsidiary  arms  of  the  service  have  been  built 
up.  Three  years  ago  there  were  four  officers  assigned  the 
duty  connected  with  aviation,  and  they  did  not  have  a  single 
available — at  any  rate  usable — craft  at  their  service;  now 
there  are  thirty-seven  airships,  121  commissioned  officers, 
and  a  large  number  of  non-commissioned  officers  and  a  suf 
ficient  force  of  enlisted  men  in  the  school  of  practice  at 
Pensacola ;  and  that  is  only  the  beginning,  because  the  Sixty- 
third  Congress,  the  last  Congress,  was  the  first  to  make  a 
specific  appropriation  for  aviation  in  connection  with  the 
Navy. 

We  have  given  to  the  present  fleet  of  the  United  States 
an  organization  such  as  it  never  had  before,  I  am  told  by 
Admiral  Fletcher,  and  we  have  made  preparations  for  im 
mediate  war,  so  far  as  the  Navy  is  concerned.  The  trouble; 
is  not  with  the  quality  or  the  organization  of  the  existing; 
Navy;  it  is  merely  that  we  have  followed  plans  piecemeal, 
a  little  bit  at  a  time,  now  in  this  direction,  now  in  that  di 
rection;  that  we  have  never  had  a  plan  thought  out  to  cover 
a  number  of  years  in  advance;  that  we  have  never  set  our 
selves  a  definite  goal  of  equipment  and  set  our  resolution 
to  attain  that  goal  within  a  reasonable  length  of  time.  The 
plans  that  are  being  proposed  to  the  present  Congress,, 
and  which  the  present  Congress  will  adopt,  are  plans  ta 
remedy  this  piecemeal  treatment  of  the  Navy  and  bring  it 
to  its  highest  point  of  efficiency  by  steady  plans  carried  out 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

from  month  to  month  and  year  to  year.  It  is  going  to  cost 
a  good  deal  of  money,  and  I  find  that  the  difficulty  with 
some  members  of  Congress  is,  not  what  ought  to  be  done 
about  the  Navy,  but  what  they  are  going  to  tax  in  order 
to  get  the  money.  .  .  . 

But  what  Army  have  we  available?  I  can  tell  you,  be 
cause  it  has  been  necessary  for  us  to  take  care  of  the  pa 
trolling  of  a  very  long  southern  border  between  us  and 
Mexico.  We  have  not  men  enough  in  the  United  States 
Army  for  the  routine  work  of  peace,  and  the  increase  in 
the  Regular  Army  that  is  being  proposed  to  the  present 
Congress  is  intended  only  to  bring  the  Regular  Army  up 
to  an  adequate  peace  establishment.  I  say  that  that  is  all 
that  is  being  proposed  with  regard  to  the  Regular  Army. 
The  United  States  has  never,  my  fellow  citizens,  depended 
upon  the  Regular  Army  to  conduct  its  wars.  It  has  depended 
upon  the  Volunteers  of  the  United  States,  and  it  has  never 
been  disappointed  either  in  their  numbers  or  in  their  qual 
ity.  But  modern  warfare  is  very  different  from  what  war 
fare  used  to  be.  Warfare  has  changed  so  within  the  span 
of  a  single  life  that  it  is  nothing  less  than  brutal  to  send 
raw  recruits  into  the  trenches  and  into  the  field.  .  .  . 

What  we  wish  is  a  definite  citizen  reserve  of  men  trained 
to  arms  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  make  them  quickly  trans 
formable  into  a  fighting  force,  organized  under  the  imme 
diate  direction  of  the  United  States,  subject  to  a  definite 
pledge  to  serve  the  United  States,  and  pledged  to  obey  im 
mediately  the  call  of  the  President  when  Congress  au 
thorizes  him  to  call  them  to  arms.  We  do  not  want  men 
to  devote  the  greater  part  of  their  time  to  training  in  arms. 
We  want  men  whose  occupation  and  passion  and  habit  is 
peace,  because  they  are  the  only  men  who  can  carry  into 
the  field  the  spirit  of  America  as  contrasted  with  the  spirit 
of  the  professional  soldier.  I  would  not  have  you  for  a 
moment  understand  me  as  detracting  from  the  character 
and  reputation  of  the  professional  soldier  as  we  know  him 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

in  the  United  States.  I  have  dealt  with  him;  he  is  as  good 
an  American  as  I  am.  He  has  a  degree  of  intelligence  and 
of  devotion  to  his  duty  which  commands  my  entire  admira 
tion.  But  the  spirit  of  every  profession  is  different  from 
the  spirit  of  the  community.  .  .  . 

I  have  been  asked  by  questioning  friends  in  Washing 
ton  whether  I  thought  a  sufficient  number  of  men  would 
volunteer  for  the  training  or  not.  Why,  if  they  did  not, 
it  is  not  the  America  that  you  and  I  know;  something  has 
happened.  They  have  said,  "Do  you  suppose  that  the  men 
who  employ  young  men  Would  give  them  leave  to  take 
this  training?"  I  say,  "Certainly  I  suppose  it;  I  know  it." 
Because  I  know  that  the  patriotism  of  America  is  not  a 
name  and  an  empty  boast,  but  a  splendid  reality.  If  they 
did  not  do  it,  I  should  be  ashamed  of  America,  and  I  never 
expect  to  see  the  day  when  America  gives  me  the  slightest 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  her.  I  am  sorry  for  the  skeptics 
who  believe  that  the  response  would  not  be  tremendous ; 
not  grudging,  but  overflowing  in  its  abundant  strength. 
And  it  is  to  prove  that  that  we  want  to  try  the  plans  that 
are  before  the  present  Congress. 

You  will  remind  me  of  the  great  National  Guard  of  the 
country;  but  how  great  is  it,  ladies  and  gentlemen?  There 
are  one  hundred  million  people  in  this  country  and  there 
are  only  129,000  men  in  the  National  Guard,  and  those 
129,000  men  are  under  the  direction,  by  the  constitutional 
arrangement  of  our  system,  of  the  governments  of  more 
than  two  score  States.  The  President  of  the  United  States 
is  not  at  liberty  to  call  them  out  of  their  States  except  upon 
the  occasion  of  actual  invasion  of  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  We  are  not  now  thinking  of  invasion  of  the  terri 
tory  of  the  United  States.  That  is  not  what  is  making  us 
anxious.  We  are  not  asking  ourselves,  "Shall  we  be  pre 
pared  to  defend  our  own  shores  and  our  own  homes?"  Is 
that  all  that  we  stand  for,  to  keep  the  door  securely  shut 
against  enemies?  Certainly  not.  What  of  the  great  trus- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

teeship  we  have  set  up  for  liberty  of  government  and  na 
tional  independence  in  the  whole  Western  Hemisphere? 
What  of  the  pledges  back  of  that  great  principle  that  has 
been  ours  and  guided  our  foreign  affairs  ever  since  the  day 
of  President  Monroe?  We  stand  pledged  to  see  that  both 
the  continents  of  America  are  left  free  to  be  used  by  their 
peoples  as  those  peoples  choose  to  use  them,  under  a  prin 
ciple  of  national  popular  sovereignty  as  absolute  and  un 
challenged  as  our  own.  And  at  this  very  moment,  as  I  am 
speaking  to  you,  the  Americas  are  drawing  together  upon 
that  handsome  principle  of  reciprocal  respect  and  reciprocal 
defense.  .  .  . 

AT  DBS  MOINES,  IOWA,  FEBRUARY  1,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

Mr.  Chairman,  Your  Excellency,  and  Fellow  Citizens: 

Some  one  who  does  not  know  our  fellow  citizens  quite  as 
well  as  he  ought  to  know  them  told  me  that  there  was  a 
certain  degree  of  indifference  and  lethargy  in  the  Middle 
West  with  regard  to  the  defense  of  the  Nation.  I  said,  "I 
do  not  believe  it,  but  I  am  going  out  to  see";  and  I  have 
seen.  I  have  seen  what  I  expected  to  see — great  bodies 
of  serious  men,  great  bodies  of  earnest  women,  coming  to 
gether  to  show  their  profound  interest  in  the  objects  of  this 
visit  of  mine.  I  know,  therefore,  that  it  is  my  privilege 
to  address  those  who  will  realize  the  spirit  of  responsibility 
in  which  I  speak  to  them. 

My  fellow  citizens,  it  would  be  easy,  if  I  permitted  my 
self  to  do  so,  to  draw  a  picture  of  the  present  situation  of 
the  world  which  would  deeply  stir  your  feelings  and  per 
haps  deeply  excite  your  apprehension,  but  you  would  not 
think  that  it  was  right  for  your  Chief  Magistrate  to  speak 
any  word  of  excitement  whatever.  I  want  you  to  believe 
that  in  what  I  say  to  you  I  am  endeavoring  as  far  as  ex 
temporaneous  speech  will  permit  to  weigh  every  word  that 

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Woodroiv    Wilson 

I  say.  I  said  a  moment  ago  that  you  know  the  errand  upon 
which  I  have  come  to  you,  but  do  you  know  the  reasons  why 
I  have  undertaken  that  errand?  There  are  some  very 
conclusive  and  imperative  reasons.  Some  of  our  fellow 
citizens  are  seeking  to  darken  counsel  upon  this  great  mat 
ter;  not  I  hope  and  believe  out  of  wrong  motives,  but  cer 
tainly  I  believe  out  of  mistaken  conceptions  of  the  duty 
and  interest  of  America. 

On  the  one  hand,  there  is  a  considerable  body  of  men 
who  are  trying  to  stir  the  very  sort  of  excitement  in  this 
country  upon  which  every  true,  well-balanced  American 
ought  to  frown.  There  are  actually  men  in  America  who 
are  preaching  war,  who  are  preaching  the  duty  of  the 
United  States  to  do  what  it  never  would  before,  seek  en 
tanglement  in  the  controversies  which  have  arisen  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water — abandon  its  habitual  and  tradi 
tional  policy  and  deliberately  engage  in  the  conflict  which 
is  now  engulfing  the  rest  of  the  world.  I  do  not  know 
what  the  standards  of  citizenship  of  these  gentlemen  may 
be.  I  only  know  that  I  for  one  can  not  subscribe  to  those 
standards.  I  believe  that  I  more  truly  speak  the  spirit  of 
America  when  I  say  that  that  spirit  is  a  spirit  of  peace. 
Why,  no  voice  has  ever  come  to  any  public  man  more 
audibly,  more  unmistakably,  than  the  voice  of  this  great 
people  has  come  to  me,  bearing  this  impressive  lesson,  "We 
are  counting  upon  you  to  keep  this  country  out  of  war." 
And  I  call  you  to  witness,  my  fellow  countrymen,  that  I 
have  spent  every  thought  and  energy  that  has  been  vouch 
safed  me  in  order  to  keep  this  country  out  of  war.  It  can 
not  be  disclosed  now,  perhaps  it  can  never  be  disclosed, 
how  anxious  and  difficult  that  task  has  been,  but  my  heart 
has  been  in  it.  I  have  not  grudged  a  single  burden  that 
has  been  thrown  upon  me  with  that  end  in  view,  for  I  knew 
that  not  only  my  own  heart,  but  the  heart  of  all  America, 
was  in  the  cause  of  peace. 

Yet,  my   fellow  citizens,  there  are   some  men   amongst 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

us  preaching  peace  who  go  much  further  than  I  can  go. 
Not  further  than  I  can  go  in  the  sentiment  of  peace;  not 
further  than  truth  warrants  them  in  going  in  interpreting 
the  desire  and  sentiment  of  America,  but  further  than  I  can 
follow  them,  further,  I  believe,  than  you  can  follow  them, 
in  preaching  the  doctrine  of  peace  at  any  price  and  in  any 
circumstances.  There  is  a  price  which  is  too  great  to  pay 
for  peace,  and  that  price  can  be  put  in  one  word.  One  can 
not  pay  the  price  of  self-respect.  One  can  not  pay  the 
price  of  duties  abdicated,  of  glorious  opportunities  neg 
lected,  of  character,  national  character  left  without  vindi 
cation  and  exemplification  in  action.  America  has  a  char 
acter  as  distinct  as  the  character  of  any  individual  amongst 
us.  We  read  that  character  in  every  page  of  her  singulai 
and  glorious  history.  It  is  written  in  invisible  signs  which, 
nevertheless,  our  spirits  can  decipher  upon  the  very  folds 
of  the  flag  which  is  the  emblem  of  our  national  life. 

The  gentlemen  who  are  out-and-out  pacifists  are  making 
one  fundamental  mistake.  That  is  not  a  mistake  about  the 
sentiments  of  America,  but  a  mistake  about  the  circum 
stances  of  the  world.  America  does  not  constitute  the  world. 
In  many  of  her  sentiments  and  predilections  she  does  not 
represent  or  influence  the  world.  The  dangers  to  our  peace 
do  not  come  any  longer  from  within  our  own  borders.  I 
could  not  have  said  that  a  few  months  ago.  Passion  was 
astir  in  this  country.  There  was  a  clash  of  sympathies  and 
a  heat  of  passion  which  made  our  air  tense  and  made  men 
hold  their  breath  for  fear  some  of  our  fellow  countrymen 
would  forget  that  their  first  loyalty  was  to  America  and 
only  their  second  loyalty  to  the  ancient  affections  which 
bound  them,  and  honorably  bound  them,  to  some  older  coun 
try  and  polity.  But  those  dangers  have  passed.  America 
has  regained  her  self-possession.  Men  are,  now  ready  to 
feel  and  to  act  in  common  in  the  great  cause  of  a  common 
national  life,  and  no  influence  within  America  is  going  to 
disturb  the  peace  of  America. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

But  America  can  not  be  an  ostrich  with  its  head  in  the 
sand.  America  can  not  shut  itself  out  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  because  all  the  dangers  at  this  present  moment,  and 
they  are  many,  come  from  her  contacts  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Those  contacts  are  going  to  be  largely  determined 
by  other  nations  and  not  determined  by  ourselves.  I  have 
not  come  to  tell  you  that  there  is  any  danger  to  our  na 
tional  life  from  anything  that  your  Government  may  do  or 
your  Congress  propose.  I  have  come  to  tell  you  that  there 
is  danger  to  our  national  life  from  what  other  nations  may 
do.  And  let  me  say,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  I  would 
not  speak  of  other  nations  in  a  spirit  of  criticism.  Not 
only  would  it  not  become  me  to  do  so,  as  your  spokesman 
and  representative,  but  I  would  not  be  interpreting  my  real 
feeling  if  I  did  so.  Every  nation  now  engaged  in  the 
titanic  struggle  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  believes,  with 
an  intensity  of  conviction  that  can  not  be  exaggerated,  that 
it  is  fighting  for  its  rights,  and  in  most  instances  that  it  is 
fighting  for  its  life;  and  we  must  not  be  too  critical  of  the 
men  who  lead  those  nations.  .  .  . 

What  is  America  expected  to  do?  She  is  expected  to  do 
nothing  less  than  keep  law  alive  while  the  rest  of  the  world 
burns.  You  know  that  there  is  no  international  tribunal, 
my  fellow  citizens.  I  pray  God  that  if  this  contest  have 
no  other  result,  it  will  at  least  have  the  result  of  creating 
an  international  tribune  and  producing  some  sort  of  joint 
guarantee  of  peace  on  the  part  of  the  great  nations  of  the 
world.  But  it  has  not  yet  done  that,  and  the  only  thing, 
therefore,  that  keeps  America  out  of  danger  is  that  to  some 
degree  the  understandings,  the  ancient  and  honorable  un 
derstandings,  of  nations  with  regard  to  their  relations  to 
one  another  and  to  the  citizens  of  one  another  are  to  some 
extent  still  observed  and  followed.  And  whenever  there 
is  a  departure  from  them,  the  United  States  is  called  upon 
to  intervene,  to  speak  its  voice  of  protest,  to  speak  its  voice 
of  insistence. 

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Do  you  want  it  to  be  only  a  voice  of  insistence  ?  Do  you 
want  the  situation  to  be  such  that  all  that  the  President 
can  do  is  to  write  messages;  to  utter  words  of  protest?  If 
these  breaches  of  international  law  which  are  in  daily 
danger  of  occurring  should  touch  the  very  vital  interests 
and  honor  of  the  United  States,  do  you  wish  to  do  nothing 
about  it?  Do  you  wish  to  have  all  the  world  say  that  the 
flag  of  the  United  States,  which  we  love,  can  be  stained 
with  impunity?  Why,  to  ask  the  question  is  to  answer  it. 
I  know  that  there  is  not  a  man  or  a  woman  in  the  hearing 
of  my  voice  who  would  wish  peace  at  the  expense  of  the 
honor  of  the  United  States.  .  .  . 

My  fellow  citizens,  you  may  be  called  upon  any  day  to 
stand  behind  me  to  maintain  the  honor  of  the  United  States. 
And  how  are  you  going  to  do  it?  There  are  two  ways  of 
doing  it.  One  is  the  careless,  easy-going,  wasteful  way 
in  which  we  have  done  these  things  hitherto.  You  say, 
"There  are  plenty  of  fighting  men  in  the  United  States; 
there  are  unexhausted  and  inexhaustible  material  resources 
in  the  United  States;  nobody  could  do  more  than  put  us  at 
a  disadvantage  for  a  little  while."  Yes;  there  are  plenty 
of  fighting  men  in  the  United  States;  but  do  they  know 
how  modern  war  is  conducted  ?  Do  they  know  how  to  guard 
themselves  against  disease  in  the  camp?  Do  they  know 
what  the  discipline  of  organization  is?  Shall  we  send  the 
whole  body  of  those  men  who  first  volunteer  to  be  butch 
ered  because  they  did  not  know  how  to  make  themselves 
immediately  ready  for  the  battlefield  and  the  trench;  be 
cause  they  did  not  know  anything  about  the  terrible  vicis 
situdes  and  disciplines  of  modern  battle? 

Why,  war  has  been  transformed  almost  within  the  mem 
ory  of  men.  The  mere  mustering  of  volunteers  is  not  war. 
Mere  bodies  of  men  are  not  an  army;  and  we  have  neither 
the  men  nor  the  equipment  for  the  men  if  they  should  be 
called  out.  It  would  take  time  to  make  an  army  of  them 
— perhaps  a  fatal  length  of  time — and  it  would  take  a  long 


Woodrow    Wilson 

time  to  provide  them  with  the  absolute  necessities  of  war 
fare.  America  is  not  going  to  sacrifice  her  youth  after 
that  fashion.  America  is  going  to  prepare  for  war  by 
preparing  citizens  who  know  what  war  means  and  how 
war  can  be  conducted.  It  is  going  to  increase  its  standing 
army  up  to  the  point  of  efficiency  for  the  present  uses  for 
which  it  is  needed,  and  it  is  going  to  put  back  of  that  army 
a  great  body  of  peaceful  men,  following  their  daily  pur 
suits,  knowing  that  their  own  happiness  and  the  happiness 
of  everybody  they  love  depends  upon  peace,  who,  never 
theless,  at  the  call  of  their  country,  will  know  how  imme 
diately  to  make  themselves  into  an  army  and  to  come  out 
and  face  an  enemy  in  a  fashion  which  will  show  that  Amer 
ica  can  neither  be  daunted  nor  taken  by  surprise.  .  .  . 

AT  TOPEKA,  KANS.,  FEBRUARY  2,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

Mr.  Chairman,  Your  Excellency,  Fellow  Citizens: 

I  was  told  before  I  came  here,  and  I  read  in  one  of  your 
papers  this  morning,  that  Kansas  was  not  in  sympathy  with 
any  policy  of  preparation  for  national  defense.  I  do  not 
believe  a  word  of  it.  I  long  ago  learned  to  distinguish  be 
tween  editorial  opinion  and  popular  opinion.  Moreover, 
having  been  addicted  to  books,  I  happened  to  have  read 
the  history  of  Kansas,  and  if  there  is  any  place  in  the  world 
fuller  of  fight  than  Kansas  I  would  like  to  hear  of  it;  any 
other  place  fuller  of  fight  on  the  right  lines.  Kansas  is 
not  looking  for  trouble,  but  Kansas  has  made  trouble  for 
everybody  that  interfered  with  her  liberties  or  her  rights, 
and  if  I  were  to  pick  out  one  place  which  was  likely  to 
wince  first  and  get  hot  first  about  invasion  of  the  essential 
principles  of  American  liberty  I  certainly  would  look  to 
Kansas  among  the  first  places  in  the  country.  If  Kansas 
is  opposed  or  has  been  opposed  to  the  policy  of  prepara 
tion  for  national  defense,  it  has  been  only  because  some- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

body  has  misrepresented  that  policy,  and  Kansas  does  not 
know  what  it  is. 

What  is  the  issue?  Why,  of  course,  there  are  some  men 
going  about  proposing  great  military  establishments  for 
America,  but  you  have  not  heard  anybody  connected  with 
the  administration  who  did.  You  have  not  heard  anybody 
in  any  responsible  position  who  could  carry  his  plan  out 
who  did.  The  singular  thing  about  this  situation  is  that 
the  loudest  voices  have  been  the  irresponsible  voices.  It  is 
easy  to  talk  and  to  say  what  ought  to  be  done  when  you 
know  that  you  do  not  have  to  do  it.  Nobody  in  authority, 
nobody  in  a  position  to  lead  the  policy  of  the  country,  has 
proposed  great  military  armaments,  and  nobody  who  really 
understands  the  history  or  shares  the  spirit  of  America 
could  or  would  propose  great  military  establishments 
for  America.  But  I  have  heard  of  men  in  Kan 
sas  who  owned  their  own  firearms  and  knew  how  to 
use  them,  and  if  there  is  any  place  in  the  Union  more  than 
another  where  you  ought  to  understand  what  it  is  to  be 
ready  to  take  care  of  yourselves,  this  is  the  place.  All  that 
anybody  in  authority  has  proposed  is  that  America  should 
be  put  in  such  a  position  that  her  free  citizens  should  know 
how  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  their  country  when  the 
occasion  arose. 

We  have  been  proposing  only  a  very  moderate  increase 
in  the  standing  army  of  the  country  because  it  is  already 
too  small  for  the  routine  uses  of  peace.  I  have  not  had 
soldiers  enough  to  patrol  the  border  between  here  and 
Mexico.  I  have  not  had  soldiers  enough  for  the  ordinary 
services  of  the  Army,  and  there  are  many  things  that  it  has 
been  impossible  for  me  to  do  which  it  was  my  duty  to  do, 
because  there  were  not  men  to  do  them  with.  You  are 
not,  I  am  sure,  going  to  be  jealous  of  an  increase  of  the 
Army  merely  sufficient  to  enable  the  Executive  to  carry 
out  his  constitutional  responsibilities.  Over  and  above  that 
we  have  proposed  this,  that  a  sufficient  number  of  men  out 

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of  the  ranks  of  the  civil  pursuits  of  the  country  should  be 
trained  in  the  use  and  keeping  of  arms,  in  the  sanitation 
of  camps,  in  the  maneuvers  of  the  field,  and  in  military 
organization;  to  be  ready  and  pledged  to  be  ready,  if  the 
call  should  come  upon  act  of  Congress,  to  unite  their  force 
with  the  little  force  of  the  Army  itself  and  make  a  great 
multitude  of  armed  men  who  were  ready  to  vindicate  the 
rights  of  America. 

Is  there  anything  inconsistent  with  the  traditions  of 
Kansas  or  with  the  true  traditions  of  America  in  a  proposal 
like  that?  The  very  essence  of  American  tradition  is  con 
tained  in  the  proposal.  Every  constitution  of  every  State 
in  the  Union  forbids  the  State  legislature  to  abridge  the 
right  of  its  citizens  to  carry  arms.  At  the  very  outset  the 
makers  of  our  very  institutions  realized  that  the  force  of 
the  Nation  must  dwell  in  the  homes  of  the  Nation.  I  do 
not  mean  the  moral  force  merely ;  I  mean  the  physical  force 
also.  They  realized  that  every  man  must  be  allowed  not 
only  to  have  a  vote,  but,  if  he  wanted  to,  to  have  a  gun  too, 
so  that  when  the  voices  of  peace  did  not  suffice,  the  voices 
of  force  would  prevail;  knowing  that  great  bodies  of  men 
do  not  use  force  to  usurp  their  own  liberties,  but  to  de 
clare  and  vindicate  their  liberties,  and  that  there  will  be  no 
collusion  among  free  men  to  upset  free  institutions;  that, 
whereas  cliques  and  coteries  and  professional  groups  may 
conceive  it  to  be  of  their  interest  to  interfere  with  the  peace 
ful  life  of  the  country,  the  general  body  of  citizens  would 
never  so  conceive  it. 

What  we  are  asking  is  this,  that  the  Nation  supply  arms 
for  those  of  the  Nation  who  are  ready,  if  occasion  should 
arise,  to  come  to  the  national  defense,  and  that  it  should  do 
this  without  withdrawing  them  from  their  pursuits  «of  in 
dustry  and  of  peace,  in  order  that  America  should  know 
that  in  the  fountains  from  which  she  always  draws  her 
strength  there  welled  up  the  inexhaustible  resources  of 
American  manhood.  This  is  not  a  military  policy;  this  is 

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a  policy  of  adequate  preparation  for  national  defense,  and 
any  man  who  represents  it  in  any  other  light  must  either 
be  ignorant  or  is  consciously  misrepresenting  the  facts.  .  .  . 

The  spirit  of  America  would  hold  any  Executive  back, 
would  hold  any  Congress  back,  from  any  action  that  had  the 
least  taint  of  aggression  upon  it.  We  are  not  going  to 
invade  any  nation's  territory.  We  are  not  going  to  covet 
any  nation's  possessions.  We  are  not  going  to  invade  any 
nation's  rights.  But  suppose,  my  fellow  countrymen,  some 
nation  should  invade  our  rights.  What  then?  What  would 
Kansas  think?  What  would  Kansas  do  then?  What  would 
America,  speaking  by  the  voice  of  Kansas  or  any  other  State 
in  the  Union,  think  and  do  then?  I  have  come  here  to  tell 
you  that  the  difficulties  of  our  foreign  policy,  the  delicate 
questions  of  our  foreign  relationships,  do  not  diminish  either 
in  number  or  in  delicacy  and  difficulty,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
daily  increase  in  number  and  in  intricacy  and  in  danger, 
and  I  would  be  derelict  to  my  duty  to  you  if  I  did  not  deal 
with  you  in  these  matters  with  the  utmost  candor  and  tell 
you  what  it  may  be  necessary  to  use  the  force  of  the  United 
States  to  do. 

For  one  thing,  it  may  be  necessary  to  use  the  force  of  the 
United  States  to  vindicate  the  right  of  American  citizens 
everywhere  to  enjoy  the  protection  of  international  law. 
There  is  nothing  you  would  be  quicker  to  blame  me  for  than 
neglecting  to  safeguard  the  rights  of  Americans,  no  mat 
ter  where  they  might  be  in  the  world.  There  are  perfectly 
clearly  marked  rights  guaranteed  by  international  law  which 
every  American  is  entitled  to  enjoy,  and  America  is  not 
going  to  abide  the  habitual  or  continued  neglect  of  those 
rights.  Perhaps  not  being  as  near  the  ports  as  some  other 
Americans,  you  do  not  travel  as  much  and  you  do  not  realize 
the  infinite  number  of  legitimate  errands  upon  which  Ameri 
cans  travel — errands  of  commerce,  errands  of  relief,  er 
rands  of  business  for  the  Government,  errands  of  every  sort 
which  make  America  useful  to  the  world.  Americans  do 

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not  travel  to  disturb  the  world;  they  travel  to  quicken  the 
processes  of  the  interchange  of  life  and  of  goods  in  the 
world,  and  their  travel  ought  not  to  be  impeded  by  a  reck 
less  disregard  of  international  obligation. 

There  is  another  thing  that  we  ought  to  safeguard,  and 
that  is  our  right  to  sell  what  we  produce  in  the  open  neu 
tral  markets  of  the  world.  Where  there  is  a  blockade,  we 
recognize  the  right  to  blockade;  where  there  are  the  ordi 
nary  restraints  created  by  a  state  of  war,  we  ought  to  recog 
nize  those  restraints;  but  the  world  needs  the  wheat  off  of 
the  Kansas  fields  and  off  the  other  great  flowering  acres  of 
the  United  States,  and  we  have  a  right  to  supply  the  rest 
of  the  world  with  the  products  of  those  fields.  We  have  a 
right  to  send  food  to  peaceful  populations  wherever  the 
conditions  of  war  make  it  possible  to  do  so  under  the  ordi 
nary  rules  of  international  law.  We  have  a  right  to  sup 
ply  them  with  our  cotton  to  clothe  them.  We  have  a  right 
to  supply  them  with  our  manufactured  products. 

We  have  made  some  mistakes,  my  fellow  citizens.  For 
several  generations  past  we  have  so  neglected  our  merchant 
marine  that  one  of  the  difficulties  we  are  struggling  against 
has  nothing  to  do  with  international  questions.  We  have  not 
got  the  American  ships  to  send  the  goods  in,  and  we  have 
got  to  get  them.  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  follow  the  for 
tunes  of  the  so-called  shipping  bill  in  the  present  Congress 
and  make  suggestions  to  your  Congressmen  as  to  the  abso 
lute  necessity  of  getting  your  wheat  and  your  other  prod 
ucts  out  of  the  ports  and  upon  the  high  seas  where  they 
can  go,  and  shall  go,  under  the  protection  of  the  laws  of  the 
United  States. 

But  that  is  a  mere  parenthesis.  Aside  from  that,  so  far 
as  there  are  vehicles  to  carry  our  trade,  we  have  the  right 
to  extend  our  trade  for  the  assistance  of  the  world.  For 
we  have  not  been  selfish  in  this  neutral  attitude  of  ours.  I 
resent  the  suggestion  that  we  have  been  selfish,  desiring 
merely  to  make  money.  What  would  happen  if  there  were 

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no  great  nation  disengaged  from  this  terrible  struggle? 
What  would  happen  if  every  nation  were  consuming  its  sub 
stance  in  war?  What  would  happen  if  no  nation  stood 
ready  to  assist  the  world  with  its  finances  and  to  supply  it 
with  its  food?  We  are  more  indispensable  now  to  the  na 
tions  at  war  by  the  maintenance  of  our  peace  than  we  could 
possibly  be  to  either  side  if  we  engaged  in  the  war,  and 
therefore  there  is  a  moral  obligation  laid  upon  us  to  keep 
out  of  this  war  if  possible.  But  by  the  same  token  there  is 
a  moral  obligation  laid  upon  us  to  keep  free  the  courses  of 
our  commerce  and  of  our  finance,  and  I  believe  that  Amer 
ica  stands  ready  to  vindicate  those  rights. 

But  there  are  rights  higher  than  either  of  those,  higher 
than  the  rights  of  individual  Americans  outside  of  America, 
higher  and  greater  than  the  rights  of  trade  and  of  com 
merce.  I  mean  the  rights  of  mankind.  We  have  made 
ourselves  the  guarantors  of  the  rights  of  national  sover 
eignty  and  of  popular  sovereignty  on  this  side  of  the  water 
in  both  the  continents  of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  You 
would  be  ashamed,  as  I  would  be  ashamed,  to  withdraw  one 
inch  from  that  handsome  guarantee;  for  it  is  a  handsome 
guarantee.  We  have  nothing  to  make  by  it,  unless  it  be  that 
we  are  to  make  friendships  by  it,  and  friendships  are  the 
best  usury  of  any  sort  of  business.  So  far  as  dollars  and 
cents  and  material  advantage  are  concerned  we  have  noth 
ing  to  make  by  the  Monroe  doctrine.  We  have  nothing  to 
make  by  allying  ourselves  with  the  other  nations  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere  in  order  to  see  to  it  that  no  man  from 
outside,  no  government  from  outside,  no  nation  from  out 
side  attempts  to  assert  any  kind  of  sovereignty  or  undue 
political  influence  over  the  peoples  of  this  continent. 

America  knows  that  the  only  thing  that  sustains  the  Mon 
roe  doctrine  and  all  the  inferences  that  flow  from  it  is  her 
own  moral  and  physical  force.  The  Monroe  doctrine  is  not 
part  of  international  law.  The  Monroe  doctrine  has  never 
been  formally  accepted  by  any  international  agreement.  The 

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Monroe  doctrine  merely  rests  upon  the  statement  of  the 
United  States  that  if  certain  things  happen  she  will  do  cer 
tain  things.  So,  nothing  sustains  the  honour  of  the  United 
States  in  respect  of  these  long-cherished  and  long-admired 
promises  except  her  own  moral  and  physical  force. 

Do  you  know  what  has  interfered  more  than  anything 
else  with  the  peaceful  relations  of  the  United  States  with 
the  rest  of  the  world?  The  incredulity  of  the  rest  of  the 
world  when  we  have  made  statement  of  our  sincere  unsel 
fishness  in  these  matters!  The  greatest  surprise  the  world 
ever  had,  politically  speaking,  was  when  the  United  States 
withdrew  from  Cuba.  We  said,  "We  are  fighting  this  war 
for  the  sake  of  the  Cubans,  and  when  it  is  over  we  are  going 
to  turn  Cuba  over  to  her  own  people";  and  statesmen  in 
every  capital  in  Europe  smiled  behind  their  hand.  They 
said,  "What!  that  great  rich  island  lying  directly  south  of 
the  foot  of  your  own  Florida !  plant  your  flag  there  and  then 
haul  it  down?"  Some  Americans  even  said,  "We  will  never 
raise  the  flag  of  the  United  States  anywhere  and  then  haul 
it  down."  And  then,  when  the  American  people  saw  that 
the  time  had  come  when  her  promises  were  to  be  fulfilled, 
down  came  that  fluttering  emblem  of  our  sovereignty,  and 
we  were  more  honored  in  its  lowering  than  we  had  been  in 
its  hoisting.  The  American  people  feel  the  same  way  about 
the  Philippines,  though  the  rest  of  the  world  does  not  yet 
believe  it.  We  are  trustees  for  the  Filipino  people,  and  j  ust 
so  soon  as  we  feel  that  they  can  take  care  of  their  own  af 
fairs  without  our  direct  interference  and  protection,  the  flag 
of  the  United  States  will  again  be  honored  by  the  fulfill 
ment  of  a  promise.  That  flag  stands  for  honor,  not  for 
advantage.  That  flag  stands  for  the  rights  of  mankind,  no 
matter  where  they  be,  no  matter  what  their  antecedents,  no 
matter  what  the  race  involved;  it  stands  for  the  absolute 
right  to  political  liberty  and  free  self  government,  and  wher 
ever  it  stands  for  the  contrary  American  traditions  have 
begun  to  be  forgotten. 

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But,  my  friends,  the  world  does  not  understand  that  yet. 
It  has  got  to  have  a  few  more  demonstrations  like  the  dem 
onstration  in  Cuba;  it  has  got  to  have  a  few  more  vindica 
tions  of  the  American  name.  When  those  vindications  have 
come,  I  believe  that  nothing  but  peace  will  ever  reign  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  the  nations  of  the  rest  of  the 
world.  For  every  man  who  minds  his  own  business  is  sure 
of  peace.  Every  man  who  respects  his  own  character  and 
observes  the  rights  of  others  is  sure  of  peace.  And  every 
nation  that  makes  right  its  guide  and  honor  its  principle  is 
sure  of  peace.  But  until  these  things  are  believed  of  us  we 
must  be  ready  with  the  hand  of  force  to  hold  others  off  from 
the  invasion  of  any  right  which  we  hold  sacred. 

I  have  come  to  you  with  the  utmost  confidence  that  the 
moment  you  understood  the  issue,  all  differences  of  party, 
all  differences  of  individual  judgment,  all  differences  of 
point  of  view  would  fall  away,  and  like  true  Americans  we 
should  all  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  a  common  cause — 
America  first  and  her  vindication  the  sacred  law  of  our 
life.  For  it  is  only  upon  the  most  solemn  occasions  that  I 
would  appeal  to  you  as  I  have  been  appealing  to-day.  The 
final  test  of  the  validity,  the  strength,  the  irresistible  force 
of  the  American  ideal,  has  come.  .  .  . 

AT  KANSAS  CITY,  Mo.,  FEBRUARY  2,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

•Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens  : 

I  would  riot  have  come  away  from  Washington  had  I  not 

believed  that  there  was  a  stronger  compulsion  of  conscience 

to  acquaint  you  with  the  state  of  affairs  than  there  was  to 

remain  during  this  week  at  the  place  of  guidance.     You 

will  know  without  my  describing  it  to  you  what  the  task 

assigned  me  has  been.     It  has  been  the  task  of  keeping  the 

i    scales  so  poised  from  day  to  day  that  no  man  should  throw 

1    into  one  scale  or  the  other  any  makeweight  which  would  im- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

peril  the  peace  of  the  United  States ;  for  I  have  felt  that 
you  were  depending  upon  your  Government  to  keep  you  out 
of  this  turmoil  which  is  disturbing  the  rest  of  the  world. 
You  are  counting  upon  me  to  do  more  than  keep  you  out  of 
trouble,  however.  You  are  counting  upon  me  to  see  to  it 
that  the  rights  of  citizens  of  the  United  States,  wherever 
they  might  be,  are  respected  by  everybody.  You  have 
counted  upon  me  to  see  that  your  energies  should  be  released 
also  along  the  channels  of  trade  in  order  that  you  might 
serve  the  world  as  the  only  Nation  disengaged  and  ready  to 
serve  it.  You  have  expected  me  to  see  that  the  rest  of  the 
world  permitted  America  thus  to  express  and  exercise  her 
human  and  legitimate  energy. 

I  have  come  out  to  ask  you  what  there  was  behind  me  in\ 
this  task.  .  .  .  It  is  necessary,  my  fellow  citizens,  that' 
I  should  ask  you  this  question,  because  I  do*  not  know  howj 
long  the  mere  word  and  insistence  of  your  Government  will! 
prevail  to  maintain  your  honor  and  the  dignity  and  power 
of  the  Nation.  There  may  come  a  time — I  pray  God  it  may 
never  come,  but  it  may,  in  spite  of  everything  we  do,  come 
upon  us,  and  come  of  a  sudden — when  I  shall  have  to  ask: 
"I  have  had  my  say;  who  stands  back  of  me?  Where  is  the; 
force  by  which  the  majesty  and  right  of  the  United  Statesf 
are  to  be  maintained  and  asserted?"  I  take  it  that  therel 
may  in  your  own  conviction  come  a  time  when  that  might! 
and  force  must  be  vindicated  and  asstered.  You  are  not; 
willing  that  what  your  Government  says  should  be  ignored. 

I  have  seen  editorials  written  in  more  than  one  part  of 
the  United  States  sneering  at  the  number  of  notes  that  were 
being  written  from  the  State  Department  to  foreign  Gov 
ernments,  and  asking,  "Why  does  not  the  Government  act?" 
And  in  those  same  papers  I  have  seen  editorials  against  the 
preparation  to  do  anything  whatever  effective  if  those  notes 
are  not  regarded.  Is  that  the  temper  of  the  United  States? 
It  may  be  the  temper  of  some  editorial  offices,  but  it  is  not 
the  temper  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

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I  came  out  upon  this  errand  from  Washington,  and  see 
what  happened.  Before  I  started  everybody  knew  what  er 
rand  I  was  bound  on.  I  expected  to  meet  quiet  audiences 
and  explain  to  them  the  issues  of  the  day,  and  what  did  I 
meet?  At  every  stop  of  the  train  multitudes  of  my  fellow 
citizens  crowded  out,  not  to  see  the  President  of  the  United 
States  merely — he  is  not  much  to  look  at — but  to  declare 
tneir  ardent  belief  in  the  majesty  of  the  Government  which 
he  stands  for  and  for  the  time  being  represents,  and  to  de 
clare  in  one  fashion  or  another,  if  it  were  only  by  cheers, 
that  they  stood  ready  to  do  their  duty  in  the  hour  of  need. 
I  have  been  thrilled  by  the  experiences  of  these  few  days, 
and  I  shall  go  back  to  Washington  and  smile  at  anybody  who 
tells  me  that  the  United  States  is  not  wide  awake.  But, 
gentlemen,  crowds  at  the  stations,  multitudes  in  great  audi 
ence  halls,  cheers  for  the  Government,  the  display — the  ar 
dent  display,  as  from  the  heart — of  the  emblem  of  our  Na 
tion,  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  only  express  the  spirit  of  the 
Nation ;  they  do  not  express  the  organized  force  of  the  Na 
tion.  And  while  I  know,  and  knew  before  I  left  Washing 
ton,  what  the  spirit  of  the  people  was,  I  have  come  out  to 
ask  them  what  their  organization  is  and  what  they  intend  to 
make  it. 

Modern  wars  are  not  won  by  mere  numbers.  They  are 
not  won  by  mere  enthusiasm.  They  are  not  won  by  mere 
national  spirit.  They  are  won  by  the  scientific  conduct  of 
war,  the  scientific  application  of  irresistible  force.  And 
what  is  there  behind  the  President  of  the  United  States? 
'Well,  in  the  first  place,  there  is  a  Navy,  which,  for  my  part, 
I  am  very  proud  of ;  a  Navy,  which  for  its  numbers,  ship  by 
ship,  man  by  man,  officer  by  officer,  I  believe  to  be  the  equal 
of  any  navy  in  the  world.  But  look  at  the  great  sweep 
of  our  coasts.  Mind  you,  this  war  has  engaged  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  outside  of  South  America  and  the  portion  of 
North  America  occupied  by  the  United  States,  and  if  this 
flame  begins  to  creep  in  on  us,  it  may,  my  fellow  citizens, 


Woodrow    Wilson 

creep  in  toward  both  coasts,  and  here  are  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  miles  of  coast.  Do  you  know  that  the  great 
sweep  from  the  canal  up  the  coast  to  Alaska  is  something 
like  half  the  circumference  of  the  world?  Do  you  remem 
ber  the  great  reaches  of  sea  from  the  canal  up  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  River  ?  Do  you  know  the  bays,  the  inviting  har 
bors,  the  great  cities  which  cluster  upon  those  coasts  ?  And 
do  you  think  that  a  Navy  that  ranks  only  fourth  in  the 
world  in  force  is  enough  to  defend  the  coasts  and  make  se 
cure  the  territory  of  a  great  continent  like  this? 

We  have  been  interested  in  our  Navy  for  a  great  many 
years,  and  we  have  been  slowly  building  it  up  to  excellent 
force,  but  we  have  done  it  piecemeal  and  a  little  at  a  time. 
There  has  been  a  party  in  Congress  that  was  for  a  little 
Navy,  as  well  as  a  party  in  Congress  that  was  for  a  big 
Navy,  and  it  seemed  to  me  a  sort  of  theoretical  situation  as 
to  whether  we  wanted  a  Navy  to  be  proud  of  or  not.  No 
nation  ought  to  wish  either  an  Army  or  Navy  to  be  proud 
of,  to  make  a  display  with,  to  make  a  toy  of.  It  is  the  arm 
of  force  which  must  lie  back  of  every  sovereignty  in  the 
world,  and  the  Navy  of  the  United  States  must  now  be  as 
rapidly  as  possible  brought  to  a  state  of  efficiency  and  of 
numerical  strength  which  will  make  it  practically  impreg 
nable  to  the  navies  of  the  world.  The  fighting  force  of  the 
Navy  now  is  splendid,  and  I  should  expect  very  great 
achievements  from  the  fine  officers  and  trained  men  that 
constitute  it,  but  it  is  not  big  enough;  it  is  not  numerous 
enough;  it  is  incomplete.  It  must  be  completed,  and  what 
the  present  administration  is  proposing  is  that  we  limit  the 
number  of  years  to  five  within  which  we  shall  complete  a 
definite  program  which  will  make  that  Navy  adequate  for 
the  defense  of  both  coasts. 

But,  on  land  what  stands  behind  the  President,  if  he 
should  have  to  act  in  your  behalf  to  enforce  the  demands  of 
the  United  States  for  respect  and  right  ?  An  Army  so  small 
that  I  have  not  had  men  enough  to  patrol  the  Mexican  bor- 

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der.  The  Mexican  border  is  a  very  long  border,  I  admit; 
it  runs  the  whole  southern  length  of  Texas  and  the  whole 
southern  length  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  besides,  and 
that  is  a  great  strip  of  noble  territory.  But  what  is  that 
single  border  to  the  whole  extent  and  coast  of  the  United 
States  ?  I  have  not  had  men  enough  to  prevent  bandits  from 
raiding  across  the  border  of  Mexico  into  the  United  States. 
It  has  been  a  very  mortifying  circumstance  indeed.  I  have 
been  tempted  to  advise  Congress  to  help  Texas  build  up  its 
little  force  of  Texas  Rangers;  and  now,  if  you  please,  be 
cause  I  am  asking  the  Congress  to  give  the  Government  an 
Army  adequate  to  the  uses  of  peace,  to  the  uses  of  the  mo 
ment,  some  gentlemen  go  about  and  prate  of  military  estab 
lishments.  They  see  phantoms,  they  dream  dreams.  Mili 
tarism  in  the  United  States  springing  out  of  any  of  the 
proposals  of  this  administration  is — why,  a  man  must  have 
a  very  strong  imagination  indeed  to  conceive  any  such  non 
sense  as  that!  I  am  not  asking,  the  administration  is  not 
asking,  to  be  backed  by  any  bigger  standing  Army  than  is 
necessary  for  the  uses  of  the  moment,  but  it  is  asking  this: 

Do  you  remember  the  experiences  of  the  Spanish-Ameri 
can  war?  That  was  not  much  of  a  war,  was  it?  It  did 
not  last  very  long.  .  .  .  What  happened?  You  sent  thou 
sands  of  men  to  their  death  because  they  were  ignorant. 
They  did  not  get  any  farther  than  the  camps  in  Florida. 
They  did  not  get  on  the  water  even,  much  less  get  to  Cuba, 
and  they  died  in  the  camps  like  flies,  of  all  sorts  of  camp 
diseases,  of  all  sorts  of  diseases  that  come  from  the  igno 
rance  of  medical  science  and  camp  sanitation.  Splendid  boys, 
boys  fit,  with  a  little  training,  to  make  an  invincible  army, 
but  sent  to  their  death  by  miserable  disease,  the  soil  of 
which  was  ignorance,  helpless  ignorance.  Why,  the  percen 
tage  of  our  loss  in  that  war  by  disease  in  the  camp  was 
greater  than  the  percentage  of  the  loss  of  the  Japanese  by 
disease  and  battle  together  in  their  war  with  Russia. 

It  is  a  very  mortifying  thing.     There  is  not  any  place  in 

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the  world  where  medical  science  is  more  nobly  studied  or 
more  adequately  applied  than  in  the  United  States,  but  we 
poured  crude,  ignorant,  untrained  boys  into  the  ranks  of 
those  armies  and  they  died  before  they  got  sight  of  an 
enemy.  Do  you  want  to  repeat  that?  And  while  that  is 
going  on  what  may  happen?  What  sort  of  disaster  may 
come  to  you  while  you  are  trying  to  make  an  army  out  of  ab 
solutely  raw  material?  Why,  it  seems  almost  ridiculous  to 
state  how  little  the  present  administration  is  asking  for.  It 
is  asking  that  you  give  it  something  that  is  not  mere  raw 
material  out  of  which  to  begin  to  make  an  army  when  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  %  make  an  army.  It  is  asking  that 
five  hundred  thousand  men  be  asked  to  volunteer  to  take  a 
little  training  every  year  for  three  years,  not  more  than  two 
or  three  months  out  of  the  year,  in  order  that  when  volun 
teers  are  called  for  in  the  case  of  war  we  may  have  men,  at 
least  five  hundred  thousand  of  them,  who  know  something 
about  the  use  of  arms,  something -about  the  sanitation  of 
camps,  something  about  the  organization  and  discipline  of 
war  in  the  field  and  in  the  trenches.  That  is  all  that  we 
are  asking  for  at  the  present  time,  and  if  there  is  any  criti 
cism  to  be  made  upon  it,  it  is  that  it  is  too  little,  not  too 
much. 

There  are  men  in  Congress  asking,  "Can  you  get  the  five 
hundred  thousand  men?  Will  they  volunteer?"  Why,  I 
believe  you  could  get  them  out  of  any  one  State  in  the 
Union.  You  could  almost  get  five  thousand  of  them  out 
of  this  audience.  But,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  do  not  forget 
that  that  is  not  all  there  is  to  this  problem.  Suppose  that  I 
knew  that  back  of  the  insistence  of  the  United  States  upon 
its  rights  was  a  great  navy  that  ranked  first  in  the  world 
and  a  body  of  men  trained  to  arms  adequate,  at  any  rate, 
to  fend  off  any  initial  disaster  to  the  United  States  while 
we  were  making  a  greater  army  ready.  That  would  be* 
only  the  beginning.  There  are  other  things  that  we  have 
been  very  much  concerned  about  in  Washington  and  that  we 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

are  taking  steps  to  attend  to.  The  railroads  of  this  country 
have  never  been  drawn  into  the  counsels  of  the  Government, 
never  until  recently,  in  such  fashion  as  to  make  plans  for 
coordinating  all  of  them,  to  transport  troops  and  transport 
provisions  and  transport  munitions  in  such  a  way  as  to 
be  the  effective  arteries  of  the  red  blood  and  energy  of  the 
Nation;  never  until  recently,  though  we  are  now  beginning 
to  do  it,  for  we  called  the  business  men  and  the  engineers 
of  the  country  into  counsel  to  say,  "What  are  the  resources 
of  manufacture  in  this  country,  and  how  can  we  coordinate 
them  and  put  them  into  cooperation,  so  that  there  will  be 
no  waste  of  time,  no  duplication  of  effort,  and  no  failure 
to  get  every  part  of  the  machinery  into  operation  should  we 
need  to  use  them  in  times  of  war?"  We  are  taking  counsel 
with  regard  to  that  now;  but,  mark  you,  the  munitions  of 
war  are  made  in  this  country  almost  exclusively  near  the 
borders  of  the  country,  and  for  the  most  part  upon  the  At 
lantic  seaboard,  and  any  initial  disaster  to  the  force  of  the 
United  States  might  put  the  greater  part  of  them,  if  not 
all  of  them,  in  the  possession  of  an  enemy.  So  that  you 
see  the  circle  of  my  argument  leads  right  back  to  the  neces 
sity  for  a  force  of  men  who  can  prevent  an  initial  disaster, 
so  that  there  will  be  no  first  failure,  no  first  invasion,  no 
first  disaster. 

Did  you  ever  hear  more  momentous  things  spoken  of  than 
these?  Did  it  ever  before  occur  to  you  that  you  must  put 
more  than  the  authority  of  words  into  the  mouths  of  men 
who  speak  for  you?  I  have  been  wringing  my  heart  and 
straining  every  energy  of  mind  that  I  have  to  preserve  the 
honor  and  integrity  and  peace  of  the  United  States,  but 
think  of  what  must  lie  at  the  back  of  my  thought.  I  know 
what  you  want  me  to  do.  I  would  be  ashamed  if  I  did  not 
use  the  utmost  powers  that  are  in  me  to  do  it.  But  suppose 
that  some  morning  I  should  have  to  turn  to  you  and  say, 
"Fellow  citizens,  I  have  done  as  much  as  I  can;  now  I  must 
ask  you  to  back  me  up  with  the  force  of  the  Nation."  And 

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suppose  that  I  should  know  before  I  said  it  that  I  had  not 
told  you  what  that  meant,  as  I  am  telling  you  to-night.  Sup 
pose  that  I  had  not  warned  you  of  what  was  involved.  Sup 
pose  that  I  had  not  challenged  you  in  a  moment  of  peace 
to  make  ready.  Do  not  suppose,  however,  that  I  am  afraid 
that  it  is  not  going  to  be  done.  I  would  not  do  the  injus 
tice 'that  that  implication  would  involve  to  the  gallant  men 
upon  the  Hill  yonder  in  Washington  who  make  the  laws  of 
the  Nation.  They  are  going  to  do  a  good  deal  of  debating, 
but  they  are  going  to  deliver  the  goods.  Do  not  misunder 
stand  me;  I  do  not  mean  that  I  can  oblige  them  to  deliver 
the  goods ;  they  are  going  to  deliver  the  goods  because  you 
want  them  delivered. 

I  am  a  believer  not  only  in  some  of  the  men  who  talk, 
though  not  all  of  them,  but  also  in  that  vast  body  of  my 
fellow  citizens  who  do  not  do  any  talking.  I  would  a  great 
deal  rather  listen  to  the  still,  small  voice  that  comes  out 
of  the  great  body  of  the  Nation  than  to  all  the  vocal  orators 
in  the  land.  But  there  are  times  when  I  must  come  out  and 
say,  "Do  not  let  the  voice  be  too  small  and  too  still" ;  when 
I  must  come  out  and  say,  "Fellow  citizens,  get  up  on  your 
hind  legs  and  talk  and  tell  the  people  who  represent  you, 
wherever  they  are — in  your  State  Capital  or  in  your  Na 
tional  Capital — what  it  is  that  the  Nation  desires  and  de 
mands."  The  thing  that  everybody  is  listening  for  in  a 
democracy  is  the  tramp,  tramp,  tramp  of  the  facts  and  the 
people.  .  .  . 

I   am  anxious,  therefore,  my   fellow   citizens,  that  you^ 
should  look  at  the  hot  stuff  of  war  before  you  touch  it ;  that • 
you  should  be  cool ;  that  you  should  apply  your  hard  busi 
ness  sense  to  the  proposition,  "Shall  we  be  caught  unaware 
and  do  a  scientific  job  like  tyros  and  ignoramuses  ?    Or  shall 
we  be  ready?     Shall  we  know  how  to  do  it,  and  when  it  is 
necessary  to  do  it;  shall  we  do  it  to  the  queen's  taste?"     I 
know  what  the  answer  of  America  is,  but  I  want  it  to  be 
unmistakably  uttered,  and  I  want  it  to  be  uttered  now.   Be- 

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cause,  speaking  with  all  solemnity,  I  assure  you  that  there 
is  not  a  day  to  be  lost;  not,  understand  me,  because  of  any 
new  or  specially  critical  matter,  but  because  I  can  not  tell 
twenty-four  hours  at  a  time  whether  there  is  going  to  be 
trouble  or  not.  And  whether  there  is  or  not  does  not  depend 
upon  what  I  do  or  what  I  say,  or  upon  what  any  man  in 
the  United  States  does  or  says.  It  depends  upon  what  for 
eign  governments  do ;  what  the  commanders  of  ships  at  sea 
do;  what  those  in  charge  of  submarines  do;  what  those 
who  are  conducting  blockades  do.  Upon  the  judgment  of 
a  score  of  men,  big  and  little,  hang  the  vital  issues  of 
peace  or  war  for  the  United  States.  .  .  . 

»  This  month  should  not  go  by  without  something  decisive 
\  being  done  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  by  way  of 
f  preparation  of  the  arms  of  self-vindication  and  defence.  .  .  . 
I  am  going  away  from  here  reassured  beyond  even  the 
hope  that  I  entertained  when  I  came  here;  and  yet  I  want 
to  beg  of  you  that  you  do  not  let  the  impressions  of  this 
hour  die  with  the  hour.  Let  every  man  and  woman  in  this 
place  go  out  of  here  with  the  feeling  that  he  must  concen 
trate  his  influence  from  this  moment  until  the  thing  is  ac 
complished  upon  making  certain  the  security  and  adequacy 
of  national  defence.  Because,  if  America  suffer,  all  the 
world  loses  its  equipoise.  Madness  has  entered  into  every 
thing,  and  that  serene  flag  which  we  have  thrown  to  the 
breeze  upon  so  many  occasions  as  the  beckoning  finger  of 
hope  to  those  who  believe  in  the  rights  of  mankind  will 
itself  be  stained  with  the  blood  of  battle,  and  staggering 
here  and  there  among  its  foes  will  lead  men  to  wonder 
where  the  star  of  America  has  gone  and  why  America  has 
allowed  herself  to  be  embroiled  when  she  might  have  car 
ried  that  standard  serenely  forward  to  the  redemption  of 
the  affairs  of  mankind.  I  beg  of  you  to  stand  by  your 
Government  with  your  minds  as  well  as  your  hearts,  and  let 
us  redeem  America  by  applying  our  judgments  to  the  whole 
some  process  of  national  defence. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

AT  ST.  Louis,  Mo.,  FEBRUARY  3,  1916. 
(The  Western  Preparedness  Tour) 

'Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens: 

I  came  into  the  Middle  West  to  find  something,  and  I 
found  it.  I  was  told  in  Washington  that  the  Middle  West 
had  a  different  feeling  from  the  portions  of  the  country  that 
lie  upon  either  coast,  and  that  it  was  indifferent  to  the  ques 
tion  of  preparation  for  national  defence.  I  knew  enough 
of  the  Middle  West  of  this  great  continent  to  know  that 
the  men  who  said  that  did  not  know  what  they  were  talking 
about.  I  knew  the  spirit  of  America  to  dwell  as  much  in  this 
great  section  of  the  country  as  in  any  other  section  of  it, 
and  I  knew  that  the  men  of  these  parts  loved  the  honor 
and  safety  of  America  as  much  as  Americans  everywhere 
love  it  and  are  ready  to  stand  by  it.  I  did  not  come  out 
to  find  out  how  you  felt  or  what  you  thought,  but  to  tell 
you  what  was  going  on.  I  came  out  in  order  that  there 
might  be  an  absolute  clarification  of  the  issues  which  art 
involved  in  the  questions  immediately  confronting  us,  be 
cause  I,  for  one,  have  an  absolute  faith  in  the  readiness  of 
America  to  act  upon  the  facts  just  as  soon  as  America 
knows  what  the  facts  are. 

The  facts  are  very  easily  and  briefly  stated.  What  is  the 
situation?  The  situation  is  that  America  is  at  peace  with 
all  the  world  and  desires  to  remain  at  peace  with  all  the 
world.  And  it  is  not  a  shallow  peace ;  it  is  a  genuine  peace, 
based  upon  some  of  the  most  fundamental  influences  of  in 
ternational  intercourse.  America  is  at  peace  with  all  the 
world  because  she  entertains  a  real  friendship  for  all  the 
nations  of  the  world.  It  is  not,  as  some  have  mistakenly 
supposed,  a  peace  based  upon  self-interest.  It  is  a  peace 
based  upon  some  of  the  most  generous  sentiments  that  char 
acterize  the  human  heart. 

You  know,  my  fellow  citizens,  that  this  Nation  is  a  com 
posite  Nation.  It  has  a  genuine  friendship  for  all  the  na- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

tions  of  the  world  because  it  is  drawn  from  all  the  na 
tions  of  the  world.  The  blood  of  all  the  great  national 
stocks  runs,  and  runs  red  and  strong,  in  the  veins  of  Amer 
ica,  and  America  understands  what  the  genuine  ties  of 
friendship  and  affection  are.  It  would  tear  the  heartstrings 
of  America  to  be  at  war  with  any  of  the  great  nations  of 
the  world.  Our  peace  is  not  a  superficial  peace.  Our  peace 
is  not  based  upon  the  mere  conveniences  of  our  national  life. 
If  great  issues  were  involved  which  it  was  our  honorable  ob 
ligation  to  defend,  we  should  not  be  at  peace,  but  would 
plunge  into  any  struggle  that  was  necessary  in  order  to  de 
fend  the  honor  and  integrity  of  the  Nation;  but  we  believe, 
my  fellow  citizens,  that  we  can  show  our  friendship  for  the 
world  and  our  devotion  to  the  principles  of  humanity  better 
and  more  effectively  by  keeping  out  of  this  struggle  than 
by  getting  into  it.  ... 

The  danger  is  not  from  within,  gentlemen;  it  is  from 
without,  and  I  am  bound  to  tell  you  that  that  danger  is 
constant  and  immediate,  not  because  anything  new  has  hap 
pened,  not  because  there  has  been  any  change  in  our  inter 
national  relationships  within  recent  weeks  or  months,  but 
because  the  danger  comes  with  every  turn  of  events.  Why 
gentlemen,  the  commanders  of  submarines  have  their  in 
structions,  and  those  instructions  are  consistent  for  the 
most  part  with  the  law  of  nations,  but  one  reckless  com 
mander  of  a  submarine,  choosing  to  put  his  private  inter 
pretation  upon  what  his  government  wishes  him  to  do, 
might  set  the  world  on  fire.  There  are  not  only  govern 
ments  to  deal  with,  but  the  servants  of  governments;  there 
are  not  only  the  contacts  of  politics,  but  also  those  infinitely 
varied  contacts  which  come  from  the  mere  movement  of 
mankind,  the  quiet  processes  of  the  everyday  world.  There 
are  cargoes  of  cotton  on  the  seas;  there  are  cargoes  of 
wheat  on  the  seas;  there  are  cargoes  of  manufactured  arti 
cles  on  the  seas;  and  every  one  of  those  cargoes  may  be 
the  point  of  ignition,  because  every  cargo  goes  into  the  field 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

of  fire,  goes  where  there  are  flames  which  no  man  can  con 
trol. 

I  know  the  spirit  of  America  to  be  this :  We  respect  other 
nations  and  absolutely  respect  their  rights  so  long  as  they 
respect  our  rights.  We  do  not  claim  anything  for  ourselves 
which  they  would  not  in  like  circumstances  claim  for  them 
selves.  Every  statement  of  right  that  we  have  made  is 
grounded  upon  the  previous  utterances  of  their  own  public 
men  and  their  own  judges.  There  is  no  dispute  about  the 
rights  of  nations  under  the  understandings  of  international 
law.  America  has  drawn  no  fine  points.  America  has  raised 
no  novel  issue.  America  has  merely  asserted  the  rights  of 
her  citizens  and  her  Government  upon  what  is  written  plain 
upon  all  the  documents  of  international  intercourse.  There 
fore  America  is  not  selfish  in  claiming  her  rights;  she  is 
merely  standing  for  the  rights  of  mankind  when  the  life  of 
mankind  is  being  disturbed  by  an  unprecedented  war  be 
tween  the  greatest  nations  of  the  world.  Some  of  these  days 
we  shall  be  able  to  call  the  statesmen  of  the  older  nations 
to  witness  that  it  was  we  who  kept  the  quiet  flame  of  inter 
national  principle  burning  upon  its  altars  while  the  winds 
of  passion  were  sweeping  every  other  altar  in  the  world. 
Some  of  these  days  they  will  look  back  with  gratification 
upon  the  steadfast  allegiance  of  the  United  States  to  those 
principles  of  action  which  every  man  loves  when  his  temper 
is  not  upset  and  his  judgment  not  disturbed.  .  .  . 

I  am  ready  to  make  every  allowance  for  both  sides,  for, 
having  pledged  myself,  as  your  chairman  has  reminded  you, 
to  maintain,  if  it  be  possible  for  me  to  maintain,  the  peace 
of  the  United  States,  I  have  thereby  pledged  myself  to  think 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  other  side 
as  well  as  from  the  point  of  view  of  America.  I  want  the 
record  of  the  conduct  of  this  administration  to  be  a  record 
of  genuine  neutrality  and  not  of  pretended  neutrality. 

You  know  the  circumstances  of  the  time.  You  know  how 
one  group  of  belligerents  is  practically  shut  off  by  circum- 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

stances  over  which  we  have  no  control  from  the  ordinary 
commerce  of  the  world.  You  know,  therefore,  how  the 
spirit  of  America  has  not  been  able  to  express  itself  ade 
quately  in  both  directions.  But  I  believe  that  the  people 
of  America  are  genuinely  neutral.  I  believe  that  their  de 
sire  is  to  stand  in  unprejudiced  judgment  upon  what  is 
going  on;  not  that  they  would  arrogate  to  themselves  the 
right  to  utter  rebuking  judgment  upon  any  nation,  but  that 
they  are  holding  themselves  off  to  assist  neither  side  in 
what  is  wrong,  and  to  countenance  both  sides  in  what  they 
are  doing  for  the  legitimate  defense  of  their  national  honor. 

The  fortunate  circumstance  of  America,  my  fellow  coun 
trymen,  is  that  it  desires  nothing  but  a  free  field  and  no 
favor.  Our  security  is  in  the  purity  of  our  motives.  The 
minute  we  get  an  impure  motive  we  are  going  to  deserve 
to  be  insecure.  The  minute  we  desire  what  we  have  no 
right  to,  then  we  are  going  to  get  into  trouble  and  ought  to 
get  into  trouble.  But,  my  fellow  citizens,  while  we  know 
our  own  hearts  and  know  our  own  desires,  it  does  not 
follow  that  other  nations  and  other  governments  understand 
our  purpose  and  our  principle  of  action.  These  are  days  of 
infinite  prejudice  and  passion,  because  they  are  days  of 
war.  It  is  said  by  an  old  maxim  that  amidst  war  the  law 
is  silent.  It  is  also  true  that  amidst  war  the  judgment  is 
silent.  Men  press  forward  towards  their  object  with  a  cer 
tain  degree  of  blind  recklessness,  and  they  are  apt  to  excite 
their  passion  particularly  against  those  who  in  any  way 
stand  in  their  way.  Therefore,  this  is  the  situation  that  I 
have  come  to  remind  you  of,  for  you  need  merely  to  have  it 
stated  to  see  it:  The  peace  of  the  world,  including  Amer 
ica,  depends  upon  the  aroused  passion  of  other  nations 
and  not  upon  the  motives  of  the  United  States.  It  is  for 
that  reason  that  I  have  come  to  call  you  to  a  consciousness 
of  the  necessity  for  preparing  this  country  for  anything  that 
may  happen. 

Here  is  the  choice,  and  I  do  not  see  how  any  prudent  man 


Woodrow    Wilson 

could  doubt  which  side  of  the  alternative  to  take:  Either 
we  shall  stand  still  and  wait  for  the  necessity  for  immediate 
national  defence  to  come  and  then  call  for  raw  volunteers 
who  for  the  first  few  months  would  be  impotent  as  against 
a  trained  and  experienced  enemy,  or  we  shall  adopt  the 
ancient  American  principle  that  the  men  of  the  country  shall 
immediately  be  made  ready  to  take  care  of  their  own  Gov 
ernment.  You  have  either  got  to  make  the  men  of  this 
Nation  in  sufficient  number  ready  to  defend  the  Nation 
against  initial  disaster,  or  you  have  got  to  take  the  risk  of 
initial  disaster.  Think  of  the  cruelty,  think  of  the  stupidity, 
of  putting  raw  levies  of  inexperienced  men  into  the  modern 
field  of  battle !  We  are  not  asking  for  armies ;  we  are  ask 
ing  for  a  trained  citizenship  which  will  act  in  the  spirit 
of  citizenship  and  not  in  the  spirit  of  military  establish 
ments.  If  anybody  is  afraid  of  a  trained  citizenship  in 
America  he  is  afraid  also  of  the  spirit  of  America  itself.  I 
do  not  want  to  command  a  great  army  under  the  authority 
granted  me  by  the  Constitution  to  be  Commander  in  Chief 
of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States ;  I  want  to  com 
mand  the  confidence  and  support  of  my  fellow  citizens. 

Of  course  you  will  back  me  up  and  come  to  my  assist 
ance  if  I  need  you,  but  will  you  come  knowing  what  you  are 
about,  or  will  you  not  ?  Will  you  come  knowing  the  charac 
ter  of  the  arms  that  you  carry  in  your  hands,  knowing  some 
thing  of  the  discipline  of  organization,  knowing  something 
of  how  to  take  care  of  yourselves  in  camp,  knowing  some 
thing  of  all  those  things  that  it  is  necessary  to  know  so  as 
not  to  throw  human  life  away?  It  is  handsome,  my  fellow 
citizens,  to  sacrifice  human  life  intelligently  for  something 
greater  than  life  itself,  but  it  is  not  handsome  for  any  cause 
whatever  to  throw  human  life  away. 

The  plans  now  laid  before  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  are  merely  plans  not  to  throw  the  life  of  American 
youth  away.  Those  plans  are  going  to  be  adopted.  I  am 
not  jealous  and  you  are  not  jealous  of  the  details;  no  man 

SIS 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

ought  to  be  confident  that  his  judgment  is  correct  about  the 
details ;  no  man  ought  to  say  to  any  legislative  body,  "You 
must  take  my  plan  or  none  at  all" — that  is  arrogance  and 
stupidity — but  we  have  the  right  to  insist,  and  I  believe  that 
it  will  not  be  necessary  to  insist,  that  we  get  the  essential 
thing;  that  is  to  say,  a  principle,  a  system,  by  which  we  can 
secure  a  trained  citizenship,  so  that  if  it  becomes  necessary 
to  defend  the  Nation  the  first  line  of  defence  on  land  will 
be  an  adequate  and  intelligent  line  of  defence. 

I  say  "on  land"  because  America  apparently  has  never 
been  jealous  of  armed  men  if  they  are  only  at  sea.  America 
also  knows  that  you  can  not  send  volunteers  to  sea  unless 
you  want  to  send  them  to  the  bottom.  The  modern  fight 
ing  ship,  the  modern  submarine,  every  instrument  of  mod 
ern  naval  warfare  must  be  handled  by  experts.  America 
has  never  debated  or  disputed  that  proposition,  and  all  that 
we  are  asking  for  now  is  that  a  sufficient  number  of  experts 
and  a  sufficient  number  of  vessels  be  at  our  disposal.  The 
vessels  we  have  are  manned  by  experts.  There  is  not  a 
better  service  in  the  world  than  that  of  the  American  Navy. 
But  no  matter  how  skilled  and  capable  the  officers  or  de 
voted  the  men,  they  must  have  ships  enough,  and  we  are 
going  to  give  them  ships  enough.  We  have  been  doing  it 
slowly  and  leisurely  and  good-naturedly,  as  we  are  accus 
tomed  to  do  everything  in  times  of  peace,  but  now  we  must 
get  down  to  business  and  do  it  systematically.  We  must 
lay  down  a  programme  and  then  steadfastly  carry  it  out 
and  complete  it.  There  are  no  novelties  about  the  pro 
gramme.  All  the  lines  of  it  are  the  lines  already  estab 
lished,  only  drawn  out  to  their  legitimate  conclusion,  and 
drawn  out  so  that  they  will  be  completed  within  a  cal 
culable  length  of  time. 

[It  will  be  noticed  that  President  Wilson  grew  more  positive  in 
his  own  convictions  as  the  speaking  tour  progressed.  He  not  only 
pleaded  for  "a  great  navy  that  ranked  first  in  the  world"  (at 
Kansas  City),  and  for  a  volunteer  army  of  500,000  men  "to  take 
a  little  training  every  year  for  three  years";  but  he  also  urged 


Woodrow    Wilson 

haste,  for  "no  man  knows  what  danger  a  single  week  or  a  single 
day  or  a  single  hour  may  bring  forth"   (Cleveland  address). 

A  naval  program  of  vast  proportions  had  previously  been  agreed 
upon  by  the  Administration,  recommended  to  and  ultimately 
adopted  by  Congress.  But  the  details  of  an  army  system  the 
President  left  to  the  legislative  body,  he  finding  it  impossible  to 
endorse  any  one  of  several  plans  proposed.  Congress,  after  long 
deliberation,  passed  a  bill  federalizing  the  State  militia  and 
authorizing  an  increase  in  the  regular  army.  The  real  strength  of 
the  armed  forces  of  the  United  States  remained  unchanged  until 
the  country  was  drawn  into  the  European  War — fourteen  months 
after  the  President's  "preparedness"  tour — when  a  selective  con 
scription  system  was  adopted  in  order  to  raise  immediately  a  large 
army.] 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  THE  EUROPEAN  WAR 

[Included  in  the  pages  immediately  following  are  the  more  im 
portant  of  the  diplomatic  notes  which  were  sent  from  Washington 
to  European  governments,  upon  matters  affecting  the  interests 
of  neutrals.  President  Wilson  himself  guided  the  foreign  policies 
of  the  nation;  and,  although  the  notes  are  signed  by  his  Secretary 
of  State — first  Mr.  Bryan  and  later  Mr.  Lansing — they  not  only 
express  the  President's  views  and  decisions,  but  frequently  are 
from  his  own  pen.] 


WILSON  ASKS  BELLIGERENT  NATIONS  TO  GOVERN  THEIR  OPERA 
TIONS   AND    CONDUCT   BY    THE    DECLARATION    OF    LONDON 

[The  Declaration  of  London,  laying  down  the  rules  that  were  to 
govern  the  signatory  Nations  in  the  conduct  of  war,  blockade, 
definitions  of  contraband  and  treatment  of  neutral  shipping,  was 
signed  in  London  February  26,  1909,  by  the  United  States,  Great 
Britain,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  France,  Russia,  Italy,  Japan, 
Holland,  and  Spain.  President  Wilson  sent  the  following  identical 
note  to  all  the  belligerent  European  Nations  as  soon  as  war 
began:] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  August  6,  1914,  1  p.  M. 

Mr.  Bryan  instructs  Mr.  Page  to  inquire  whether  the 
British  Government  is  willing  to  agree  that  the  laws  of  na 
val  warfare  as  laid  down  by  the  Declaration  of  Londun  of 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

1909  shall  be  applicable  to  naval  warfare  during  the  pres 
ent  conflict  in  Europe  provided  that  the  Governments  with 
whom  Great  Britain  is  or  may  be  at  war  also  agree  to  such 
application.  Mr.  Bryan  further  instructs  Mr.  Page  to 
state  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  believes  that 
an  acceptance  of  these  laws  by  the  belligerents  would  pre 
vent  grave  misunderstanding  which  may  arise  as  to  the  re 
lations  between  neutral  powers  and  the  belligerents.  Mr. 
Bryan  adds  that  it  is  earnestly  hoped  that  this  inquiry  may 
receive  favorable  consideration. 

[August  13  Austria-Hungary  replied  in  the  affirmative.  August 
22  the  German  government  did  the  same.  Great  Britain  replied 
that  she  would  adopt  "generally  the  rules  of  the  Declaration, 
subject  to  certain  modifications."  Following  this,  the  British  and 
French  governments  issued  steadily  enlarging  definitions  and  lists 
of  contraband  and  made  such  other  radical  modifications  of  the 
Declaration,  that  the  United  "States  withdrew  its  proposal  in  the 
following  notes:] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  October  22,  1914. 
To  Ambassador  TV.  H.  Page  (London): 

Inasmuch  as  the  British  Government  consider  that  the 
conditions  of  the  present  European  conflict  make  it  impos 
sible  for  them  to  accept  without  modification  the  Declara 
tion  of  London,  you  are  requested  to  inform  His  Majesty's 
Government  that  in  the  circumstances  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  feels  obliged  to  withdraw  its  suggestion 
that  the  Declaration  of  London  be  adopted  as  a  temporary 
code  of  naval  warfare  to  be  observed  by  belligerents  and 
neutrals  during  the  present  war;  that  therefore  this  Gov 
ernment  will  insist  that  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  United 
States  and  its  citizens  in  the  present  war  be  defined  by  the 
existing  rules  of  international  law  and  the  treaties  of  the 
United  States  irrespective  of  the  provisions  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  London;  and  that  this  Government  reserves  to  it 
self  the  right  to  enter  a  protest  or  demand  in  each  case 

216 


jy'oourow    Wilson 

in  which  those  rights  and  duties  so  defined  are  violated  or 
their  free  exercise  interfered  with  by  the  authorities  of 
His  Britannic  Majesty's  Government. 

LANSING. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  October  24,  1914. 
To  the  Ambassadors  in  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary: 

Referring  to  Department's  August  6,  1  p.  m.,  and  Em 
bassy's  October  22,  relative  to  the  Declaration  of  London, 
Mr.  Lansing  instructs  Mr.  Gerard  to  inform  the  German 
Government  that  the  suggestion  of  the  department  to  bellig 
erents  as  to  the  adoption  of  declaration  for  sake  of  uni 
formity  as  to  a  temporary  code  of  naval  warfare  during 
the  present  conflict  has  been  withdrawn  because  some  of  the 
belligerents  are  unwilling  to  accept  the  declaration  without 
modifications  and  that  this  Government  will  therefore  in 
sist  that  the  rights  and  duties  o,f  the  Government  and  citi 
zens  of  the  United  States  in  the  present  war  be  defined  by 
existing  rules  of  international  law  and  the  treaties  of  the 
United  States  without  regard  to  the  provisions  of  the  dec 
laration  and  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  re 
serves  to  itself  the  right  to  enter  a  protest  or  demand  in 
every  case  in  which  the  rights  and  duties  so  defined  are  vio 
lated  or  their  free  exercise  interfered  with  by  the  authori 
ties  of  the  belligerent  governments. 


WILSON'S  APPEAL  TO  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE   FOR 
NEUTRALITY 

(A  Proclamation — August  19,  1914.) 

My  Fellow  Countrymen: 

I  suppose  that  every  thoughtful  man  in  America  has  asked 
himself,  during  these  last  troubled  weeks,  what  influence 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

the  European  war  may  exert  upon  the  United  States,  and  I 
take  the  liberty  of  addressing  a  few  words  to  you  in  order 
to  point  out  that  it  is  entirely  within  our  own  choice  what 
its  effects  upon  us  will  be  and  to  urge  very  earnestly  upon 
you  the  sort  of  speech  and  conduct  which  will  best  safe 
guard  the  Nation  against  distress  and  disaster. 

The  effect  of  the  war  upon  the  United  States  will  de 
pend  upon  what  American  citizens  say  and  do.  Every  man 
who  really  loves  America  will  act  and  speak  in  the  true 
spirit  of  neutrality,  which  is  the  spirit  of  impartiality  and 
fairness  and  friendliness  to  all  concerned.  The  spirit  of 
the  Nation  in  this  critical  matter  will  be  determined  largely 
by  what  individuals  and  society  and  those  gathered  in  pub 
lic  meetings  do  and  say,  upon  what  newspapers  and  maga 
zines  contain,  upon  what  ministers  utter  in  their  pulpits, 
and  men  proclaim  as  their  opinions  on  the  street. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  drawn  from  many 
nations,  and  chiefly  from  the  nations  now  at  war.  It  is 
natural  and  inevitable  that  there  should  be  the  utmost  va 
riety  of  sympathy  and  desire  among  them  with  regard  to 
the  issues  and  circumstances  of  the  conflict.  Some  will 
wish  one  nation,  others  another,  to  succeed  in  the  momen 
tous  struggle.  It  will  be  easy  to  excite  passion  and  diffi 
cult  to  allay  it.  Those  responsible  for  exciting  it  will 
assume  a  heavy  responsibility,  responsibility  for  no  less  a 
thing  than  that  the  people  of  the  United  States,  whose 
love  of  their  country  and  whose  loyalty  to  its  Government 
should  unite  them  as  Americans  all,  bound  in  honor  and 
affection  to  think  first  of  her  and  her  interests,  may  be  di 
vided  in  camps  of  hostile  opinion,  hot  against  each  other,  in 
volved  in  the  war  itself  in  impulse  and  opinion  if  not  in 
action. 

Such  divisions  among  us  would  be  fatal  to  our  peace  of 
mind  and  might  seriously  stand  in  the  way  of  the  proper 
performance  of  our  duty  as  the  one  great  nation  at  peace, 
the  one  people  holding  itself  ready  to  play  a  part  of  im- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

partial  mediation  and  speak  the  counsels  of  peace  and 
accommodation,  not  as  a  partisan,  but  as  a  friend. 

I  venture,  therefore,  my  fellow  countrymen,  to  speak  a 
solemn  word  of  warning  to  you  against  that  deepest,  most 
subtle,  most  essential  breach  of  neutrality  which  may 
spring  out  of  partisanship,  out  of  passionately  taking  sides. 
The  United  States  must  be  neutral  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
name  during  these  days  that  are  to  try  men's  souls.  We 
must  be  impartial  in  thought  as  well  as  in  action,  must  put 
a  curb  upon  our  sentiments  as  well  as  upon  every  transac 
tion  that  might  be  construed  as  a  preference  of  one  party 
to  the  struggle  before  another. 

My  thought  is  of  America.  I  am  speaking,  I  feel  sure, 
the  earnest  wish  and  purpose  of  every  thoughtful  Ameri 
can  that  this  great  country  of  ours,  which  is,  of  course,  the 
first  in  our  thoughts  and  in  our  hearts,  should  show  herself 
in  this  time  of  peculiar  trial  a  Nation  fit  beyond  others  to 
exhibit  the  fine  poise  of  undisturbed  judgment,  the  dignity 
of  self-control,  the  efficiency  of  dispassionate  action;  a  Na 
tion  that  neither  sits  in  judgment  upon  others  nor  is  dis 
turbed  in  her  own  counsels  and  which  keeps  herself  fit 
and  free  to  do  what  is  honest  and  disinterested  and  truly 
serviceable  for  the  peace  of  the  world. 

Shall  we  not  resolve  to  put  upon  ourselves  the  restraints 
which  will  bring  to  our  people  the  happiness  and  the  great 
and  lasting  influence  for  peace  we  covet  for  them? 

WILSON'S  REPLY  TO  BELLIGERENTS'  DECLARATIONS  OP 
MARITIME  WAR  ZONES 

[November  3,  1914,  Great  Britain  declared  the  entire  North  Sea 
a  war-zone.  February  14.  1915,  Germany  declared  the  waters 
surrounding  the  British  Isles  and  the  whole  English  Channel  a 
war-zone  and  announced  that,  in  retaliation  for  Great  Britain's 
violations  of  maritime  rules  of  war,  all  enemy  merchant  vessels 
found  in  the  zone  would  be  destroyed  after  February  18.  Naviga 
tion  in  the  waters  north  of  the  Shetland  Islands,  and  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  North  Sea,  and  in  a  zone  thirty  miles  wide 

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Presidential  Messages ,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

along  the  Dutch  coast  was  expressly  declared  as  being  outside  of 
this  danger  zone.  Neutral  vessels  were  warned  that  though 
German  submarine  commanders  had  orders  to  refrain  from  all 
violence  against  neutral  shipping,  Great  Britain's  misuse  of  neutral 
flags  made  the  conditions  dangerous. 

In  response,  the  United  States  sent  the  following  communica 
tions  to  German  and  Great  Britain:] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,    February  10,  1915. 
To  Ambassador  Gerard  (Berlin): 

Please  address  a  note  immediately  to  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  to  the  following  effect: 

The  Government  of  the  United  States,  having  had  its 
attention  directed  to  the  proclamation  of  the  German  Ad 
miralty  issued  on  the  fourth  of  February,  that  the  waters 
surrounding  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  including  the  whole 
of  the  English  Channel,  are  to  be  considered  as  comprised 
within  the  seat  of  war;  that  all  enemy  merchant  vessels 
found  in  those  waters  after  the  eighteenth  instant  will  be 
destroyed,  although  it  may  not  always  be  possible  to  save 
crews  and  passengers;  and  that  neutral  vessels  expose 
themselves  to  danger  within  this  zone  of  war  because,  in 
view  of  the  misuse  of  neutral  flags  said  to  have  been  ordered 
by  the  British  Government  on  the  thirty-first  of  January 
and  of  the  contingencies  of  maritime  warfare,  it  may  not 
be  possible  always  to  exempt  neutral  vessels  from  attacks 
intended  to  strike  enemy  ships,  feels  it  to  be  its  duty  to 
call  the  attention  of  the  Imperial  German  Government,  with 
sincere  respect  and  the  most  friendly  sentiments  but  very 
candidly  and  earnestly,  to  the  very  serious  possibilities  of 
the  course  of  action  apparently  contemplated  under  that 
proclamation. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  views  those  pos 
sibilities  with  such  grave  concern  that  it  feels  it  to  be  its 
privilege,  and  indeed  its  duty  in  the  circumstances,  to 
request  the  Imperial  German  Government  to  consider  be- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

fore  action  is  taken  the  critical  situation  in  respect  of  the 
relations  between  this  country  and  Germany  which  might 
arise  were  the  German  naval  forces,  in  carrying  out  the 
policy  foreshadowed  in  the  Admiralty's  proclamation,  to 
destroy  any  merchant  vessel  of  the  United  States  or  cause 
the  death  of  American  citizens. 

It  is  of  course  not  necessary  to  remind  the  German  Gov 
ernment  that  the  sole  right  of  a  belligerent  in  dealing  with 
neutral  vessels  on  the  high  seas  is  limited  to  visit  and  search, 
unless  a  blockade  is  proclaimed  and  effectively  maintained, 
which  this  Government  does  not  understand  to  be  proposed 
in  this  case.  To  declare  or  exercise  a  right  to  attack  and 
destroy  any  vessel  entering  a  prescribed  area  of  the  high 
seas  without  first  certainly  determining  its  Belligerent 
nationality  and  the  contraband  character  of  its  cargo  would 
be  an  act  so  unprecedented  in  naval  warfare  that  this  Gov 
ernment  is  reluctant  to  believe  that  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment  of  Germany  in  this  case  contemplates  it  as  possible. 
The  suspicion  that  enemy  ships  are  using  neutral  flags  im 
properly  can  create  no  just  presumption  that  all  ships 
traversing  a  prescribed  area  are  subject  to  the  same  sus 
picion.  It  is  to  determine  exactly  such  questions  that  this 
Government  understands  the  right  of  visit  and  search  to 
have  been  recognized. 

This  Government  has  carefully  noted  the  explanatory 
statement  issued  by  the  Imperial  German  Government  at 
,ihe  same  time  with  the  proclamation  of  the  German  Ad 
miralty,  and  takes  this  occasion  to  remind  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  very  respectfully  that  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  is  open  to  none  of  the  criticisms  for  un- 
neutral  action  to  which  the  German  Government  believe 
the  governments  of  certain  of  other  neutral  nations  have 
laid  themselves  open;  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  has  not  consented  to  or  acquiesced  in  any  measures 
which  may  have  been  taken  by  the  other  belligerent  na 
tions  in  the  present  war  which  operate  to  restrain  neutral 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

trade,  but  has,  on  the  contrary,  taken  in  all  such  matters 
a  position  which  warrants  it  in  holding  those  governments 
responsible  in  the  proper  way  for  any  untoward  effects  up 
on  American  shipping  which  the  accepted  principles  of  in 
ternational  law  do  not  justify;  and  that  it,  therefore,  re 
gards  itself  as  free  in  the  present  instance  to  take  with  a 
clear  conscience  and  upon  accepted  principles  the  position 
indicated  in  this  note. 

If  the  commanders  of  German  vessels  of  war  should  act 
upon  the  presumption  that  the  flag  of  the  United  States 
was  not  being  used  in  good  faith  and  should  destroy  on  the 
high  seas  an  American  vessel  or  the  lives  of  American  citi 
zens,  it  would  be  difficult  for  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  tc  "view  the  act  in  any  other  light  than  as  an  in 
defensible  violation  of  neutral  rights  which  it  would  be 
very  hard  indeed  to  reconcile  with  the  friendly  relations 
now  so  happily  subsisting  between  the  two  Governments. 

If  such  a  deplorable  situation  should  arise,  the  Imperial 
German  Government  can  readily  appreciate  that  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  would  be  constrained  to  hold 
the  Imperial  German  Government  to  a  strict  accountability 
for  such  acts  of  their  naval  authorities  and  to  take  any 
steps  it  might  be  necessary  to  take  to  safeguard  American 
lives  and  property  and  to  secure  to  American  citizens  the 
full  enjoyment  of  their  acknowledged  rights  on  the  high 
seas. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States,  in  view  of  these 
considerations,  which  it  urges  with  the  greatest  respect 
and  with  the  sincere  purpose  of  making  sure  that  no  mis 
understanding  may  arise  and  no  circumstance  occur  that 
might  even  cloud  the  intercourse  of  the  two  Governments, 
expresses  the  confident  hope  and  expectation  that  the  Im 
perial  German  Government  can  and  will  give  assurance  that 
American  citizens  and  their  vessels  will  not  be  molested  by 
the  naval  forces  of  Germany  otherwise  than  by  visit  and 
search,  though  their  vessels  may  be  traversing  the  sea  area 


Woodrow    Wilson 

delimited  in  the  proclamation  of  the  German  Admiralty. 
It  is  added  for  the  information  of  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment  that  representations  have  been  made  to  His  Britannic 
Majesty's  Government  in  respect  to  the  unwarranted  use 
of  the  American  flag  for  the  protection  of  British  ships. 

BRYAN. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,     February   10,  1915. 
To  Ambassador  W.  H,  Page  (London): 

The  department  has  been  advised  of  the  Declaration  of 
the  German  Admiralty  on  February  fourth,  indicating  that 
the  British  Government  had  on  January  thirty-first  ex 
plicitly  authorized  the  use  of  neutral  flags  on  British  mer 
chant  vessels  presumably  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  recog 
nition  by  German  naval  forces.  The  department's  atten 
tion  has  also  been  directed  to  reports  in  the  press  that  the 
captain  of  the  Lusitaniat  acting  upon  orders  or  information 
received  from  the  British  authorities,  raised  the  American 
flag  as  his  vessel  approached  the  British  coasts,  in  order 
to  escape  anticipated  attacks  by  German  submarines.  To 
day's  press  reports  also  contain  an  alleged  official  state 
ment  of  the  Foreign  Office  defending  the  use  of  the  flag  of 
a  neutral  country  by  a  belligerent  vessel  in  order  to  escape 
capture  or  attack  by  an  enemy. 

Assuming  that  the  foregoing  reports  are  true,  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States,  reserving  for  future  con 
sideration  the  legality  and  propriety  of  the  deceptive  use 
of  the  flag  of  a  neutral  power  in  any  case  for  the  purpose 
of  avoiding  capture,  desires  very  respectfully  to  point  out 
to  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Government  the  serious  conse 
quences  which  may  result  to  American  vessels  and  Ameri 
can  citizens  if  this  practice  is  continued. 

The  occasional  use  of  the  flag  of  a  neutral  or  an  enemy 
under  the  stress  of  immediate  pursuit  and  to  deceive  an 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

approaching  enemy,  which  appears  by  the  press  reports 
to  be  represented  as  the  precedent  and  justification  used 
to  support  this  action,  seems  to  this  Government  a  very 
different  thing  from  an  explicit  sanction  by  a  belligerent 
government  for  its  merchant  ships  generally  to  fly  the  flag 
of  a  neutral  power  within  certain  portions  of  the  high  seas 
which  are  presumed  to  be  frequented  with  hostile  warships. 
The  formal  declaration  of  such  a  policy  of  general  misuse 
of  a  neutral's  flag  jeopardizes  the  vessels  of  the  neutral 
visiting  those  waters  in  a  peculiar,  degree  by  raising  the 
presumption  that  they  are  of  belligerent  nationality  re 
gardless  of  the  flag  which  they  may  carry. 

In  view  of  the  announced  purpose  of  the  German  Ad 
miralty  to  engage  in  active  naval  operations  in  certain  de 
limited  sea  areas  adjacent  to  the  coasts  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  would 
view  with  anxious  solicitude  any  general  use  of  the  flag  of 
the  United  States  by  British  vessels  traversing  those  waters. 
A  policy  such  as  the  one  which  His  Majesty's  Government 
is  said  to  intend  to  adopt  would,  if  the  declaration  of  the 
German  Admiralty  is  put  in  force,  it  seems  clear,  afford 
no  protection  to  British  vessels,  while  it  would  be  a  serious 
and  constant  menace  to  the  lives  and  vessels  of  American 
citizens. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States,  therefore,  trusts 
that  His  Majesty's  Government  will  do  all  in  their  power 
to  restrain  vessels  of  British  nationality  from  the  deceptive 
use  of  the  flag  of  the  United  States  in  the  sea  area  defined 
in  the  German  declaration,  since  such  practice  would  greatly 
endanger  the  vessels  of  a  friendly  power  navigating  those 
waters  and  would  even  seem  to  impose  upon  the  Govern 
ment  of  Great  Britain  a  measure  of  responsibility  for  the 
loss  of  American  lives  and  vessels  in  case  of  an  attack  by  a 
German  naval  force. 

Please  present  a  note  to  Sir  Edward  Grey  in  the  sense 
of  the  foregoing  and  impress  him  with  the  grave  concern 

224 


Woodrow    Wilson 

which  this  Government  feels  in  the  circumstances  in  regard 
to  the  safety  of  American  vessels  and  lives  in  the  war  zone 
declared  by  the  German  Admiralty. 

You  may  add  that  this  Government  is  making  earnest 
representations  to  the  German  Government  in  regard  to 
the  danger  to  American  vessels  and  citizens  if  the  declara 
tion  of  the  German  Admiralty  is  put  into  effect. 

BRYAN. 

THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  TO  AMBASSADOR  W.  H.  PAGE 
[LONDON] 

The  same  to  Ambassador  Gerard  (Berlin). 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  February  20,  1915. 

You  will  please  deliver  to  Sir  Edward  Grey  the  following 
identic  note  which  we  are  sending  England  and  Germany; 

In  view  of  the  correspondence  which  has  passed  between 
this  Government  and  Great  Britain  and  Germany  respec 
tively,  relative  to  the  Declaration  of  a  war  zone  by  the 
German  Admiralty  and  the  use  of  neutral  flags  by  British 
merchant  vessels,  this  Government  ventures  to  express  the 
hope  that  the  two  belligerent  Governments  may,  through 
reciprocal  concessions,  find  a  basis  for  agreement  which  will 
relieve  neutral  ships  engaged  in  peaceful  commerce  from 
the  great  dangers  which  they  will  incur  in  the  high  seas 
adjacent  to  the  coasts  of  the  belligerents. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  respectfully  sug 
gests  that  an  agreement  in  terms  like  the  following  might 
be  entered  into.  This  suggestion  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  in 
any  sense  a  proposal  made  by  this  Government,  for  it  of 
course  fully  recognizes  that  it  is  not  its  privilege  to  propose 
terms  of  agreement  between  Great  Britain  and  Germany, 
even  though  the  matter  be  one  in  which  it  and  the  people  of 
the  United  States  are  directly  and  deeply  interested.  It  is 

IMS 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

merely  venturing  to  take  the  liberty  which  it  hopes  may  be 
accorded  a  sincere  friend  desirous  of  embarrassing  neither 
nation  involved  and  of  serving,  if  it  may,  the  common  in 
terests  of  humanity.  The  course  outlined  is  offered  in  the 
hope  that  it  may  draw  forth  the  views  and  elicit  the  sug 
gestions  of  the  British  and  German  Governments  on  a  mat 
ter  of  capital  interest  to  the  whole  world. 

Germany  and  Great  Britain  to  agree: 

1.  That  neither  will  sow  any  floating  mines,  whether  upon  the 
high  seas  or  in  territorial  waters;  that  neither  will  plant  on  the 
high  seas  anchored  mines  except  within  cannon  range  of  harbors 
for  defensive   purposes   only;   and   that   all  mines   shall   bear  the 
stamp  of  the  Government  planting  them  and  be  so  constructed  as 
to  become  harmless  if  separated  from  their  moorings. 

2.  That  neither  will  use  submarines  to  attack  merchant  vessels 
of  any  nationality  except  to  enforce  the  right  of  visit  and  search. 

3.  That  each  will  require  their  respective  merchant  vessels  not 
to  use  neutral  flags  for  the  purpose  of  disguise  or  ruse  de  guerre. 

Germany  to  agree: 

That  all  importations  of  food  or  foodstuffs  from  the  United 
States  (and  from  such  other  neutral  countries  as  may  ask  it)  into 
Germany  shall  be  consigned  to  agencies  to  be  designated  by  the 
United  States  Government;  that  these  American  agencies  shall  have 
entire  charge  and  control  without  interference  on  the  part  of  the 
German  Government,  of  the  receipt  and  distribution  of  such  im 
portations,  and  shall  distribute  them  solely  to  retail  dealers  bearing 
licenses  from  the  German  Government  entitling  them  to  receive 
and  furnish  such  food  and  foodstuffs  to  noncombatants  only;  that 
any  violation  of  the  terms  of  the  retailers'  licenses  shall  work  a 
forfeiture  of  their  rights  to  receive  such  food  and  foodstuffs  for 
this  purpose;  and  that  such  food  and  foodstuffs  will  not  be  requi 
sitioned  by  the  German  Government  for  any  purpose  whatsoever 
or  be  diverted  to  the  use  of  the  armed  forces  of  Germany. 

Great  Britain  to  agree: 

That  food  and  foodstuffs  will  not  be  placed  upon  the  absolute 
contraband  list  and  that  shipments  of  such  commodities  will  not 
be  interfered  with  or  detained  by  British  authorities  if  consigned 
to  agencies  designated  by  the  United  States  Government  in  Ger 
many  for  the  receipt  and  distribution  of  such  cargoes  to  licensed 
German  retailers  for  distribution  solely  to  the  noncombatant 
population. 

226 


Woodrow    Wilson 

In  submitting  this  proposed  basis  of  agreement  this  Gov 
ernment  does  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  admitting  or 
denying  any  belligerent  or  neutral  right  established  by  the 
principles  of  international  law,  but  would  consider  the 
agreement,  if  acceptable  to  the  interested  powers,  a  modus 
Vivendi  based  upon  expediency  rather  than  legal  right  and 
as  not  binding  upon  the  United  States  either  in  its  present 
form  or  in  a  modified  form  until  accepted  by  this  Gov 
ernment. 

BRYAN. 

[February  28,  1915,  Germany  agreed  to  the  suggested  rules  prac 
tically  in  entirety.  March  13,  1915,  Great  Britain  declared  that 
it  did  not  understand  from  the  German  reply  that  submarine  prac 
tices  would  be  abandoned.  The  note  recited  other  German  offenses 
against  humanity  and  upheld  the  British  blockade.] 

THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  TO  AMBASSADOR  PAGE  [LONDON] 
Same  note  sent  to  Ambassador  Sharp  (Paris). 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  March  5,  1915. 

In  regard  to  the  recent  communications  received  from  the 
British  and  French  Governments  concerning  restraints  upon 
commerce  with  Germany,  please  communicate  with  the  Brit 
ish  foreign  office  in  the  sense  following: 

The  difficulty  of  determining  action  upon  the  British  and 
French  declarations  of  intended  retaliation  upon  commerce 
with  Germany  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  proposed  measures 
in  their  relation  to  commerce  by  neutrals. 

While  it  appears  that  the  intention  is  to  interfere  with 
and  take  into  custody  all  ships  both  outgoing  and  incoming, 
trading  with  Germany,  which  is  in  effect  a  blockade  of 
German  ports,  the  rule  of  blockade,  that  a  ship  attempting 
to  enter  or  leave  a  German  port  regardless  of  the  character 
of  its  cargo  may  be  condemned,  is  not  asserted. 

The   language   of  the   declaration   is   "the   British   and 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

French  Governments  will,  therefore,  hold  themselves  free 
to  detain  and  take  into  port  ships  carrying  goods  of  pre 
sumed  enemy  destination,  ownership,  or  origin.  It  is  not 
intended  to  confiscate  such  vessels  or  cargoes  unless  they 
would  otherwise  be  liable  to  condemnation." 

The  first  sentence  claims  a  right  pertaining  only  to  a 
state  of  blockade.  The  last  sentence  proposes  a  treatment 
of  ships  and  cargoes  as  if  no  blockade  existed.  The  two 
together  present  a  proposed  course  of  action  previously  un 
known  to  international  law. 

As  a  consequence  neutrals  have  no  standard  by  which  to 
measure  their  rights  or  to  avoid  danger  to  their  ships  and 
cargoes.  The  paradoxical  situation  thus  created  should  be 
changed  and  the  declaring  powers  ought  to  assert  whether 
they  rely  upon  the  rules  governing  a  blockade  or  the  rules 
applicable  when  no  blockade  exists. 

The  declaration  presents  other  perplexities. 

The  last  sentence  quoted  indicates  that  the  rules  of  con 
traband  are  to  be  applied  to  cargoes  detained.  The  rule 
covering  noncontraband  articles  carried  in  neutral  bottoms 
is  that  the  cargoes  shall  be  released  and  the  ships  allowed 
to  proceed.  This  rule  can  not,  under  the  first  sentence 
quoted,  be  applied  as  to  destination.  What  then  is  to  be 
done  with  a  cargo  of  noncontraband  goods  detained  under 
the  declaration?  The  same  question  may  be  asked  as  to 
conditional  contraband  cargoes. 

The  foregoing  comments  apply  to  cargoes  destined  for 
Germany.  Cargoes  coming  out  of  German  ports  present 
another  problem  under  the  terms  of  the  declaration.  Under 
the  rules  governing  enemy  exports  only  goods  owned  by 
enemy  subjects  in  enemy  bottoms  are  subject  to  seizure  and 
condemnation.  Yet  by  the  declaration  it  is  purposed  to 
seize  and  take  into  port  all  goods  of  enemy  "ownership  and 
origin."  The  word  "origin"  is  particularly  significant.  The 
origin  of  goods  destined  to  neutral  territory  on  neutral  ships 
is  not  and  never  has  been  a  ground  for  forfeiture  except  in 


Woodrotv    Wilson 

case  a  blockade  is  declared  and  maintained.  What  then 
would  the  seizure  amount  to  in  the  present  case  except  to 
delay  the  delivery  of  the  goods?  The  declaration  does  not 
indicate  what  disposition  would  be  made  of  such  cargoes  if 
owned  by  a  neutral  or  if  owned  by  an  enemy  subj  ect.  Would 
a  different  rule  be  applied  according  to  ownership?  If  so, 
upon  what  principles  of  international  law  would  it  rest? 
And  upon  what  rule  if  no  blockade  is  declared  and  main 
tained  could  the  cargo  of  a  neutral  ship  sailing  out  of  a 
German  port  be  condemned?  If  it  is  not  condemned,  what 
other  legal  course  is  there  but  to  release  it  ? 

While  this  Government  is  fully  alive  to  the  possibility 
that  the  methods  of  modern  naval  warfare,  particularly  in 
the  use  of  the  submarine  for  both  defensive  and  offensive 
operations,  may  make  the  former  means  of  maintaining  a 
blockade  a  physical  impossibility,  it  feels  that  it  can  be 
urged  with  great  force  that  there  should  be  also  some 
limit  to  "the  radius  of  activity,"  and  especially  so  if  this 
action  by  the  belligerents  can  be  construed  to  be  a  blockade. 
It  would  certainly  create  a  serious  state  of  affairs  if,  for 
example,  an  American  vessel  laden  with  a  cargo  of  German 
origin  should  escape  the  British  patrol  in  European  waters 
only  to  be  held  up  by  a  cruiser  off  New  York  and  taken 
into  Halifax. 

BRYAN. 

WILSON'S  COMMUNICATIONS  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN  ABOUT  RE 
STRAINTS  ON  TRADE  AND  His  NOTE  DENOUNCING 
THE  BRITISH  NORTH  SEA  BLOCKADE  AS  "IN 
EFFECTIVE,  ILLEGAL  AND  INDEFENSIBLE" 

[Four  and  one-half  months  after  the  beginning  of  the  European 
war,  Wilson  sent  the  note  of  December  26,  1914,  to  Great  Britain 
reciting  the  grievances  of  American  merchants  and  declaring  that 
the  United  States  "is  reluctantly  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
present  policy  of  His  Majesty's  Government  toward  neutral  ships 
and  cargoes  exceeds  the  manifest  necessity  of  a  belligerent  and 
constitutes  restrictions  upon  the  rights  of  American  citizens  on 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papcrt 

the  high  seas  which  are  not  justified  by  the  rules  of  international 
law  or  required  under  the  principle  of  self-preservation." 

The  British  replies  were  long  arid  complicated,  citing  American 
trade  statistics  and  alleging  precedents  established  by  Federal 
maritime  operations  in  the  Civil  War. 

March  30,  1915,  a  second  American  note  answered  many  of 
these  subtly-argued  points  and  declared  that  a  recent  "Order  in 
Council"  constituted  "a  practical  assertion  of  unlimited  belligerent 
rights  over  neutral  commerce,  and  an  almost  unqualified  denial 
of  the  sovereign  rights  of  the  nations  now  at  peace." 

A  correspondence  followed,  marked  by  British  communications 
still  more  complex  than  the  early  ones  and  extremely  voluminous. 
President  Wilson  finally  summed  up  the  American  contention  in 
the  following  comprehensive  note,  answering  British  notes  of 
January  7,  February  10,  June  22,  July  23,  July  31,  August  2 
and  August  6,  1915.] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  October  21,  1915. 
To  Ambassador  W.  H.  Page  (London): 

I  desire  that  you  present  a  note  to  Sir  Edward  Grey  in 
the  sense  of  the  following: 

This  Government  has  delayed  answering  the  earlier  of 
these  notes  in  the  hope  that  the  announced  purpose  of  His 
Majesty's  Government  "to  exercise  their  belligerent  rights 
with  every  possible  consideration  for  the  interest  of  neu 
trals"  and  their  intention  of  "removing  all  causes  of  avoid 
able  delay  in  dealing  with  American  cargoes"  and  of  caus 
ing  "the  least  possible  amount  of  inconvenience  to  persons 
engaged  in  legitimate  trade/'  as  well  as  their  "assurances 
to  the  United  States  Government  that  they  would  make  it 
their  first  aim  to  minimize  the  inconveniences"  resulting 
from  the  "measures  taken  by  the  Allied  Governments/' 
would  in  practice  not  unjustifiably  infringe  upon  the  neu 
tral  rights  of  American  citizens  engaged  in  trade  and  com 
merce.  It  is,  therefore,  a  matter  of  regret  that  this  hope 
has  not  been  realized,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  inter 
ferences  with  American  ships  and  cargoes  destined  in 
good  faith  to  neutral  ports  and  lawfully  entitled  to  pro 
ceed  have  become  increasingly  vexatious,  causing  Ameri- 

230 


Woodrow    Wilson 

can  shipowners  and  American  merchants  to  complain  to 
this  Government  of  the  failure  to  take  steps  to  prevent 
an  exercise  of  belligerent  power  in  contravention  of  their 
just  rights.  As  the  measures  complained  of  proceed  di 
rectly  from  orders  issued  by  the  British  Government,  are 
executed  by  British  authorities,  and  arouse  a  reasonable 
apprehension  that,  if  not  resisted,  they  may  be  carried  to 
an  extent  even  more  injurious  to  American  interests,  this 
Government  directs  the  attention  of  His  Majesty's  Gov 
ernment  to  the  following  considerations: 

[Here  followed  a  denial  of  the  correctness  of  deductions  drawn 
from  trade  statistics  as  to  the  injury  to  American  foreign  trade, 
and  (1)  objection  to  the  seizure  of  cargoes  on  suspicion,  and 
their  detention  while  the  British  government  looked  for  evidence 
to  support  the  suspicion  (2)  insistence  that  international  usage 
permitted  only  a  search  at  sea  and  not  a  deviation  of  vessels  from 
their  course  in  order  to  carry  them  into  a  port  for  search  (3)  a 
denial  that  American  practice  in  this  respect  during  the  Civil  War 
justified  the  British  proceedings  (4)  denial  of  the  British  claim 
that  modern  conditions  made  search  at  sea  impracticable,  and  a 
statement  from  American  naval  experts  that  the  "facilities  for 
boarding  and  inspection  of  modern  ships  are  in  fact  greater  than 
in  former  times"  (5)  objections  to  a  demand  for  evidence  of 
innocent  voyage  beyond  the  papers  of  the  ship  and  the  goods 
found  on  board,  and  a  repetition  of  the  American  objection  to 
the  practice  of  seizing  and  detaining  ships  "on  mere  suspicion 
while  efforts  are  made  to  obtain  evidence  from  extraneous  sources 
to  justify  the  detention."  (6)  Repudiation  of  the  British  claim 
that  the  American  seizure  of  the  Bermuda,  in  the  Civil  War  (a 
famous  case  cited  frequently  by  Great  Britain)  was  in  any  sense 
similar  to  the  British  practices. 

The  British  contention  that  greatly  increased  imports  of  neutral 
countries  adjoining  Great  Britain's  enemies  raised  a  presumption 
that  they  were  intended  for  sale  to  the  belligerents,  was  charac 
terized  as  not  laying  down  a  "just  or  legal  rule  of  evidence.  Such 
a  presumption  is  too  far  from  the  facts  and  offers  too  great  oppor 
tunity  for  abuse  by  a  belligerent,  who  could,  if  the  rule  were 
adopted,  entirely  ignore  neutral  rights  on  the  high  seas  and  prey 
with  impunity  on  neutral  commerce."  On  this  subject  the  note 
continued :] 

Great  Britain  cannot  expect  the  United  States  to  sub 
mit  to  such  manifest  injustice  or  to  permit  the  rights  of 
its  citizens  to  be  so  seriously  impaired.  .  .  .  When 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

goods  are  clearly  intended  to  become  incorporated  in  the 
mass  of  merchandise  for  sale  in  a  neutral  country,  it 
is  an  unwarranted  and  inquisitorial  proceeding  to  detain 
shipments  for  examination  as  to  whether  those  goods  are 
ultimately  destined  for  the  enemy's  country  or  use.  What 
ever  may  be  the  conjectural  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from 
trade  statistics,  which,  when  stated  by  value,  are  of  un 
certain  evidence  as  to  quantity,  the  United  States  main 
tains  the  right  to  sell  goods  into  the  general  stock  of  a 
neutral  country  ^  and  denounces  as  illegal  and  unjustifiable 
any  attempt  of  a  belligerent  to  interfere  with  that  right  on 
the  ground  that  it  suspects  that  the  previous  supply  of  such 
goods  in  the  neutral  country,  which  the  imports  renew  or 
replace,  has  been  sold  to  an  enemy.  That  is  a  matter  with 
which  the  neutral  vendor  has  no  concern  and  which  can 
in  no  way  affect  his  rights  of  trade.  Moreover,  even  if 
goods  listed  as  conditional  contraband  are  destined  to  an 
enemy  country  through  a  neutral  country,  that  fact  is  not 
in  itself  sufficient  to  justify  their  seizure.  .  .  .  Relying 
upon  the  regard  of  the  British  Government  for  the  princi 
ples  of  justice  so  frequently  and  uniformly  manifested  prior 
to  the  present  war,  this  Government  anticipates  that  the 
British  Government  will  instruct  their  officers  to  refrain 
from  these  vexatious  and  illegal  practices.  .  .  . 

The  British  note  of  July  23,  1915,  appears  to  confirm 
the  intention  indicated  in  the  note  of  March  15,  1915,  to 
establish  a  blockade  so  extensive  as  to  prohibit  trade  with 
Germany  or  Austria-Hungary,  even  through  the  ports  of 
neutral  countries  adjacent  to  them.  Great  Britain,  how 
ever,  admits  that  it  should  not,  and  give:*  assurances  that 
it  will  not,  interfere  with  trade  with  the  countries  con 
tiguous  to  the  territories  of  the  enemies  of  Great  Britain. 
Nevertheless,  after  over  six  months'  application  of  the 
"blockade"  order,  the  experience  of  American  citizens  has 
convinced  the  Government  of  the  United  States  that  Great 
Britain  has  been  unsuccessful  in  her  efforts  to  distinguish 


Woodrow    Wilson 

between  enemy  and  neutral  trade.  Arrangements  have  been 
made  to  create  in  these  neutral  countries  special  consignees, 
or  consignment  corporations,  with  power  to  refuse  shipments 
and  to  determine  when  the  state  of  the  country's  resources 
requires  the  importation  of  new  commodities.  American 
commercial  interests  are  hampered  by  the  intricacies  of 
these  arrangements,  and  many  American  citizens  justly 
complain  that  their  bona  fide  trade  with  neutral  countries 
is  greatly  reduced  as  a  consequence,  while  others  assert 
that  their  neutral  trade,  which  amounted  annually  to  a 
large  sum,  has  been  entirely  interrupted.  . 

While  the  United  States  Government  was  at  first  in 
clined  to  view  with  leniency  the  British  measures  which 
were  termed  in  the  correspondence  but  not  in  the  Order 
in  Council  of  March  11  a  "blockade,"  because  of  the  as 
surances  of  the  British  Government  that  inconvenience  to 
neutral  trade  would  be  minimized,  this  Government  is  now 
forced  to  the  realization  that  its  expectations  were  based 
on  a  misconception  of  the  intentions  of  the  British  Govern 
ment.  ...  In  the  circumstances  now  developed  it  feels 
that  it  can  no  longer  psrmit  the  validity  of  the  alleged 
blockade  to  remain  unchallenged. 

The  Declaration  of  Paris  in  1856,  which  has  been  uni 
versally  recognized  as  correctly  stating  the  rule  of  inter 
national  law  as  to  blockade,  expressly  declares  that  "block 
ades,  in  order  to  be  binding,  must  be  effective;  that  is  to 
say,  maintained  by  force  sufficient  really  to  prevent  access 
to  the  coast  of  the  enemy.  .  .  . 

[Here  followed  detailed  statements  that  the  German  coasts  were 
open  to  trade  with  the  Scandinavian  countries,  that  German  naval 
vessels  cruised  freely  both  in  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic  and 
took  prizes,  and  that  the  British  Government  itself  had  issued 
certain  orders  that  showed  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  blockade. 
Referring  to  the  incidental  blockade  of  neutral  ports,  the  Ameri 
can  note  said:] 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  Great  Britain 
exports  and  re-exports  large  quantities  of  merchandise  to 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Holland,  whose  ports,  so 
far  as  American  commerce  is  concerned,  she  regards  as 
blockaded.  In  fact,  the  British  note  of  August  13  itself 
indicates  that  the  British  exports  of  many  articles,  such 
as  cotton,  lubricating  oil,  tobacco,  cocoa,  coffee,  rice,  wheat 
flour,  barley,  spices,  tea,  copra,  etc.,  to  these  countries 
have  greatly  exceeded  the  British  exports  for  the  corre 
sponding  period  of  1914.  The  note  also  shows  that  there 
has  been  an  important  British  trade  with  these  countries 
in  many  other  articles,  such  as  machinery,  beef,  butter,  cot 
ton  waste,  etc. 

Finally,  there  is  no  better  settled  principle  of  the  law 
of  nations  than  that  which  forbids  the  blockade  of  neutral 
ports  in  time  of  war.  The  Declaration  of  London,  though 
not  regarded  as  binding  upon  the  signatories  because  not 
ratified  by  them,  has  been  expressly  adopted  by  the  British 
Government  without  modification  as  to  blockade  in  the 
British  Order  in  Council  of  October  29,  1914.  Article  18 
of  the  Declaration  declares  specifically  that  "The  block 
ading  forces  must  not  bar  access  to  neutral  ports  or  coasts." 

[Here  followed  citations  from  authorities  and  a  quotation  from 
Sir  Edward  Grey's  own  earlier  definitions  of  blockade,  as  well  as 
prize  court  decisions,  after  which  the  note  said:] 

Without  mentioning  the  other  customary  elements  of 
a  regularly  imposed  blockade,  such  as  notification  of  the 
particular  coast  line  invested,  the  imposition  of  the  penalty 
of  confiscation,  etc.,  which  are  lacking  in  the  present  Brit 
ish  "blockade"  policy,  it  need  only  be  pointed  out  that, 
measured  by  the  universally  conceded  tests  above  set  forth, 
the  present  British  measures  cannot  be  regarded  as  con 
stituting  a  blockade  in  law,  in  practice,  or  in  effect. 

It  is  incumbent  upon  the  United  States  Government, 
therefore,  to  give  the  British  Government  notice  that  the 
blockade,  which  they  claim  to  have  instituted  under  the 
Order  in  Council  of  March  11,  cannot  be  recognized  as 
a  legal  blockade  by  the  United  States. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

Since  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  has  laid  much 
emphasis  on  the  ruling  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Springbok  case,  that  goods  of  contraband 
character  seized  while  going  to  the  neutral  port  of  Nassau, 
though  actually  bound  for  the  blockaded  ports  of  the  south, 
were  subject  to  condemnation,  it  is  not  inappropriate  to 
direct  attention  to  the  British  view  of  this  case  in  England 
prior  to  the  present  war,  as  expressed  by  Sir  Edward  Grey 
in  his  instructions  to  the  British  delegates  to  the  London 
Conference  in  1908: 

It  is  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  was  in  reality  meant  to  cover  a  case  of  blockade  running  in 
which  no  question  of  contraband  arose.  Certainly  if  such  was  the 
intention,  the  decision  would  pro  tanto  be  in  conflict  with  the 
practice  of  the  British  courts.  His  Majesty's  Government  sees  no 
reason  for  departing  from  that  practice,  and  you  should  endeavor 
to  obtain  general  recognition  of  its  correctness. 

It  may  be  pointed  out  also  that  the  circumstances  sur 
rounding  the  Springbok  case  were  essentially  different  from 
those  of  the  present  day.  The  ports  of  the  Confederate 
States  were  effectively  blockaded  by  the  naval  forces  of 
the  United  States,  though  no  neutral  ports  were  closed, 
and  a  continuous  voyage  through  a  neutral  port  required 
an  all-sea  voyage  terminating  in  an  attempt  to  pass  the 
blockading  squadron. 

[The  demand  of  Great  Britain  that  aggrieved  American  citizens 
should  seek  redress  in  British  prize-courts  instead  of  through 
diplomatic  channels,  was  refused  with  the  following  argument:] 

They  (the  cases)  result  from  acts  committed  by  the 
British  naval  authorities  upon  the  high  seas,  where  the 
jurisdiction  over  neutral  vessels  is  acquired  solely  by  inter 
national  law.  Vessels  of  foreign  nationality,  flying  a  neu 
tral  flag  and  finding  their  protection  in  the  country  of  that 
flag,  are  seized  without  facts  warranting  a  reasonable  sus 
picion  that  they  are  destined  to  blockaded  ports  of  the 
enemy  or  tJaat  their  cargoes  are  contraband.  The  officers 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

appear  to  find  their  justification  in  the  Orders  in  Council 
and  regulations  of  the  British  Government,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  in  many  of  the  present  cases  the  Orders  in  Coun 
cil  and  the  regulations  are  themselves  complained  of  as 
contrary  to  international  law.  Yet  the  very  courts  which, 
it  is  said,  are  to  dispense  justice  to  dissatisfied  claimants 
are  bound  by  the  Orders  in  Council.  .  .  .  How  can 
a  tribunal  fettered  by  municipal  enactments  declare  itself 
emancipated  from  their  restrictions  and  at  liberty  to  apply 
the  rules  of  international  law  with  freedom?  The  very 
laws  and  regulations  which  bind  the  court  are  now  mat 
ters  of  dispute  between  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  and  that  of  His  Britannic  Majesty.  .  .  .  There 
is,  furthermore,  a  real  and  far-reaching  injury  for  which 
prize  courts  offer  no  means  of  reparation.  It  is  the  dis 
astrous  effect  of  the  methods  of  the  allied  Governments 
upon  the  general  right  of  the  United  States  to  enjoy  its 
international  trade  free  from  unusual  and  arbitrary  limita 
tions  imposed  by  belligerent  nations.  Unwarranted  delay 
and  expense  in  bringing  vessels  into  port  for  search  and 
investigation  upon  mere  suspicion  has  a  deterrent  effect 
upon  trade  ventures,  however  lawful  they  may  be,  which 
cannot  be  adequately  measured  in  damages.  .  .  . 

There  is  another  ground  why  American  citizens  cannot 
submit  their  wrongs  arising  out  of  undue  detentions  and 
seizures  to  British  prize  courts  for  reparation.  It  is  the 
manner  in  which  British  courts  obtain  jurisdiction  of  such 
cases.  .  .  .  Municipal  regulations  in  violation  of  the 
international  rights  of  another  nation  cannot  be  extended 
to  the  vessels  of  the  latter  on  the  high  seas  so  as  to  justify 
a  belligerent  nation  bringing  them  into  its  ports,  and, 
having  illegally  brought  them  within  its  territorial  jurisdic 
tion,  compelling  them  to  submit  to  the  domestic  laws  of 
that  nation.  Jurisdiction  obtained  in  such  a  manner  is 
contrary  to  those  principles  of  justice  and  equity  which  all 
nations  should  respect.  .  .  .  The  Government  of  the 


Woodrow    Wilson 

United  States  has,  therefore,  viewed  with  surprise  and  con 
cern  the  attempt  of  His  Majesty's  Government  to  confer 
upon  the  British  prize  courts  jurisdiction  by  this  illegal 
exercise  of  force.  . 

This  Government  is  advised  that  vessels  and  cargoes 
brought  in  for  examination  are  released  only  upon  con 
dition  that  costs  and  expenses  incurred  in  the  course  of 
such  unwarranted  procedure,  such  as  pilotage,  unlading 
costs,  etc.,  be  paid  by  the  claimants  or  on  condition  that 
they  sign  a  waiver  of  right  to  bring  claims  against  the 
British  Government  for  these  exactions.  This  Government 
is  loath  to  believe  that  such  ungenerous  treatment  will 
continue  to  be  accorded  American  citizens  by  the  Govern 
ment  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  but  in  order  that  the  posi 
tion  of  the  United  States  Government  may  be  clearly 
understood,  I  take  this  opportunity  to  inform  Your  Ex 
cellency  that  this  Government  denies  that  the  charges  inci 
dent  to  such  detentions  are  rightfully  imposed  upon  inno 
cent  trade  or  that  any  waiver  of  indemnity  exacted  from 
American  citizens  under  such  conditions  of  duress  can 
preclude  them  from  obtaining  redress  through  diplomatic 
channels  or  by  whatever  other  means  may  be  open  to. 
them.  .  .  . 

I  believe  it  has  been  conclusively  shown  that  the  methods 
employed  by  Great  Britain  to  obtain  evidence  of  enemy 
destination  of  cargoes  bound  for  neutral  ports  and  to  im 
pose  a  contraband  character  upon  such  cargoes  are  without 
justification;  that  the  blockade,  upon  which  such  methods 
are  partly  founded,  is  ineffective,  illegal,  and  indefensible; 
that  the  judicial  procedure  offered  as  a  means  of  reparation 
for  an  international  injury  is  inherently  defective  for  the 
purpose;  and  that  in  many  cases  jurisdiction  is  asserted  in 
violation  of  the  law  of  nations.  The  United  States,  there 
fore,  cannot  submit  to  the  curtailment  of  its  neutral  rights 
by  these  measures,  which  are  admittedly  retaliatory,  and 
therefore  illegal,  in  conception  and  in  nature,  and  intended 

237 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to  punish  the  •ncmies  of  Great  Britain  for  alleged  illegali 
ties  on  their  part.  Th*  United  States  might  not  be  in  a 
position  to  object  to  them  if  its  interests  and  the  interests 
of  all  neutrals  were  unaffected  by  them,  but,  being  affected, 
it  cannot  with  complacence  suffer  further  subordination  of 
its  rights  to  the  plea  that  the  exceptional  geographic  posi 
tion  of  the  enemies  of  Great  Britain  require  or  justify  op 
pressive  and  illegal  practices. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  desires,  therefore, 
to  impress  most  earnestly  upon  His  Majesty's  Govern 
ment  that  it  must  insist  that  the  relations  between  it  and 
His  Majesty's  Government  be  governed,  not  by  a  policy 
of  expediency,  but  by  those  established  rules  of  interna 
tional  conduct  upon  which  Great  Britain  in  the  past  has 
held  the  United  States  to  account  when  the  latter  nation 
was  a  belligerent  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  national  exist 
ence.  It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  neutrals  not  only 
of  the  present  day  but  of  fehe  future  that  the  principles  of 
international  right  be  maintained  unimpaired. 

This  task  of  championing  the  integrity  of  neutral  rights, 
which  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  civilized  world 
against  the  lawless  conduct  of  belligerents  arising  out  of 
the  bitterness  of  the  great  conflict  which  is  now  wasting  the 
countries  of  Europe,  the  United  States  unhesitatingly  as 
sumes,  and  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  task  it  will  devote 
its  energies,  exercising  always  that  impartiality  which  from 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  it  has  sought  to  exercise  in  its  rela 
tions  with  the  warring  nations. 

ROBERT  LANSING. 


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Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  FIRST  NOTE  TO  GERMANY   ON  SINKING  OP  THE 
"LUSITANIA" 

[May  7,  1915  the  Cunard  steamship  Liisitania,  bcmncl  to  England 
from  New  York,  was  torpedoed  by  a  German  submarine  off 
Kinsale  Head,  Ireland,  and  sank  almost  immediately,  causing  the 
loss  of  more  than  1,000  lives.  President  Wilson's  note  was:] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 

WASHINGTON,  May  13,  1915. 
To  Ambassador  Gerard: 

Please  call  on  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  and  after 
reading  to  him  this  communication  leave  with  him  a  copy. 

In  view  of  recent  acts  of  the  German  authorities  in  vio 
lation  of  American  rights  on  the  high  seas  which  culmi 
nated  in  the  torpedoing  and  sinking  of  the  British  steam 
ship  Lusitania  on  May  7,  1915,  by  which  over  100  Ameri 
can  citizens  lost  their  lives,  it  is  clearly  wise  and  desirable 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  the  Imperial 
German  Government  should  come  to  a  clear  and  full  under 
standing  as  to  the  grave  situation  which  has  resulted. 

The  sinking  of  the  British  passenger  steamer  Falaba  by 
a  German  submarine  on  March  28,  through  which  Leon  C. 
Thrasher,  an  American  citizen,  was  drowned;  the  attack 
on  April  28  on  the  American  vessel  Gushing  by  a  German 
aeroplane;  the  torpedoing  on  May  1  of  the  American  vessel 
Gulflight  by  a  German  submarine,  as  a  result  of  which  two 
or  more  American  citizens  met  their  death;  and,  finally, 
the  torpedoing  and  sinking  of  the  steamship  Lusitania,  con 
stitute  a  series  of  events  which  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  has  observed  with  growing  concern,  distress, 
and  amazement. 

Recalling  the  humane  and  enlightened  attitude  hitherto 
assumed  by  the  Imperial  German  Government  in  matters 
of  international  right,  and  particularly  with  regard  to  the 
freedom  of  the  seas;  having  learned  to  recognize  the  Ger 
man  views  and  the  German  influence  in  the  field  of  inter- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

national  obligation  as  always  engaged  upon  the  side  of 
justice  and  humanity;  and  having  understood  the  instruc 
tions  of  the  Imperial  German  Government  to  its  naval  com 
manders  to  be  upon  the  same  plane  of  humane  action  pre 
scribed  by  the  naval  codes  of  other  nations,  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  was  loath  to  believe — it  cannot  now 
bring  itself  to  believe — that  these  acts,  so  absolutely  con 
trary  to  the  rules,  the  practices,  and  the  spirit  of  modern 
warfare,  could  have  the  countenance  or  sanction  of  that 
great  Government.  It  feels  it  to  be  its  duty,  therefore, 
to  address  the  Imperial  German  Government  concerning 
them  with  the  utmost  frankness  and  in  the  earnest  hope 
that  it  is  not  mistaken  in  expecting  action  on  the  part  of 
the  Imperial  German  Government  which  will  correct  the 
unfortunate  impressions  which  have  been  created  and  vindi 
cate  once  more  the  position  of  that  Government  with  regard 
to  the  sacred  freedom  of  the  seas. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  been  apprised 
that  the  Imperial  German  Government  considered  them 
selves  to  be  obliged  by  the  extraordinary  circumstances 
of  the  present  war  and  the  measures  adopted  by  their 
adversaries  in  seeking  to  cut  Germany  off  from  all  com 
merce,  to  adopt  methods  of  retaliation  which  go  much  be 
yond  the  ordinary  methods  of  warfare  at  sea,  in  the  procla 
mation  of  a  war  zone  from  which  they  have  warned  neutral 
ships  to  keep  away.  This  Government  has  already  taken 
occasion  to  inform  the  Imperial  German  Government  that 
it  cannot  admit  the  adoption  of  such  measures  or  such  a 
warning  of  danger  to  operate  as  in  any  degree  an  abbrevia 
tion  of  the  rights  of  American  shipmasters  or  of  American 
citizens  bound  on  lawful  errands  as  passengers  on  merchant 
ships  of  belligerent  nationality;  and  that  it  must  hold  the 
Imperial  German  Government  to  a  strict  accountability  for 
any  infringement  of  those  rights,  intentional  or  incidental. 
It  does  not  understand  the  Imperial  German  Government 
to  question  those  rights.  It  assumes,  on  the  contrary,  that 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

the  Imperial  Government  accept,  as  of  course,  the  rule 
that  the  lives  of  noncombatants,  whether  they  be  of  neutral 
citizenship  or  citizens  of  one  of  the  nations  at  war,  cannot 
lawfully  or  rightfully  be  put  in  jeopardy  by  the  capture 
or  destruction  of  an  unarmed  merchantman,  and  recognize 
also,  as  all  other  nations  do,  the  obligation  to  take  the  usual 
precaution  of  visit  and  search  to  ascertain  whether  a  sus 
pected  merchantman  is  in  fact  of  belligerent  nationality 
or  is  in  fact  carrying  contraband  of  war  under  a  neutral 
flag. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States,  therefore,  desires 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  Imperial  German  Government 
with  the  utmost  earnestness  to  the  fact  that  the  objection 
to  their  present  method  of  attack  against  the  trade  of  their 
enemies  lies  in  the  practical  impossibility  of  employing 
submarines  in  the  destruction  of  commerce  without  dis 
regarding  those  rules  of  fairness,  reason,  justice,  and  hu 
manity,  which  all  modern  opinion  regards  as  impera  "ve. 
It  is  practically  impossible  for  the  officers  of  a  submarine 
to  visit  a  merchantman  at  sea  and  examine  her  papers  and 
cargo.  It  is  practically  impossible  for  them  to  make  a 
prize  of  her;  and,  if  they  cannot  put  a  prize  crew  on  board 
of  her,  they  cannot  sink  her  without  leaving  her  crew  and 
all  on  board  of  her  to  the  mercy  of  the  sea  in  her  small 
boats.  These  facts  it  is  understood  the  Imperial  German 
Government  frankly  admit.  We  are  informed  that  in  the 
instances  of  which  we  have  spoken  time  enough  for  even 
that  poor  measure  of  safety  was  not  given,  and  in  at  least 
two  of  the  cases  cited  not  so  much  as  a  warning  was  re 
ceived.  Manifestly  submarines  cannot  be  used  against  mer 
chantmen,  as  the  last  few  weeks  have  shown,  without  an 
inevitable  violation  of  many  sacred  principles  of  justice 
and  humanity. 

American  citizens  act  within  their  indisputable  rights  in 
taking  their  ships  and  in  traveling  wherever  their  legitimate 
business  calls  them  upon  the  high  seas,  and  exercise  those 

241 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papen 

rights  in  what  should  be  the  well-justified  confidence  that 
their  lives  will  not  be  endangered  by  acts  done  in  clear  vio 
lation  of  universally  acknowledged  international  obliga 
tions,  and  certainly  in  the  confidence  that  their  own  Gov 
ernment  will  sustain  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  rights. 

There  was  recently  published  in  the  newspapers  of  the 
United  States,  I  regret  to  inform  the  Imperial  German 
Government,  a  formal  warning,  purporting  to  come  from 
the  Imperial  German  Embassy  at  Washington,  addressed 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  stating,  in  effect, 
that  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  who  exercised  his 
right  of  free  travel  upon  the  seas  would  do  so  at  his  peril 
if  his  journey  should  take  him  within  the  zones  of  waters 
within  which  the  Imperial  German  Navy  was  using  sub 
marines  against  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain  and  France, 
notwithstanding  the  respectful  but  very  earnest  protest  of 
his  Government,  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  I 
do  lot  refer  to  this  for  the  purpose  of  calling  the  attention 
of  che  Imperial  German  Government  at  this  time  to  the 
surprising  irregularity  of  a  communication  from  the  Im 
perial  German  Embassy  at  Washington  addressed  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  through  the  newspapers,  but 
only  for  the  purpose  of  pointing  out  that  no  warning  that 
an  unlawful  and  inhumane  act  will  be  committed  can  pos 
sibly  be  accepted  as  an  excuse  or  palliation  for  that  act  or 
as  an  abatement  of  the  responsibility  for  its  commission. 

Long  acquainted  as  this  Government  has  been  with  the 
character  of  the  Imperial  German  Government  and  with 
the  high  principles  of  equity  by  which  they  have  in  the  past 
been  actuated  and  guided,  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  cannot  believe  that  the  commanders  of  the  vessels 
which  committed  these  acts  of  lawlessness  did  so  except 
under  a  misapprehension  of  the  orders  issued  by  the  Im 
perial  German  naval  authorities.  It  takes  it  for  granted 
that,  at  least  within  the  practical  possibilities  of  every  such 
case,  the  commanders  even  of  submarines  were  expected  tr 


Woodrow    Wilson 

do  nothing  that  would  involve  the  lives  of  noncombatants 
or  the  safety  of  neutral  ships,  even  at  the  cost  of  failing 
of  their  object  of  capture  or  destruction.  It  confidently  ex 
pects,  therefore,  that  the  Imperial  German  Government 
will  disavow  the  acts  of  which  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  complains,  that  they  will  make  reparation 
so  far  as  reparation  is  possible  for  injuries  which  are  with 
out  measure,  and  that  they  will  take  immediate  steps  to 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  anything  so  obviously  subversive 
of  the  principles  of  warfare  for  which  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  have  in  the  past  so  wisely  and  so  firmly 
contended. 

The  Government  and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
look  to  the  Imperial  German  Government  for  just,  prompt, 
and  enlightened  action  in  this  vital  matter  with  the  greater 
confidence  because  the  United  States  and  Germany  are 
bound  together  not  only  by  special  ties  of  friendship  but 
also  by  the  explicit  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of  1828  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia. 

Expressions  of  regret  and  offers  of  reparation  in  case 
of  the  destruction  of  neutral  ships  sunk  by  mistake,  while 
they  may  satisfy  international  obligations,  if  no  loss  of 
life  results,  cannot  justify  or  excuse  a  practice,  the  natural 
and  necessary  effect  of  which  is  to  subject  neutral  nations 
and  neutral  persons  to  new  and  immeasurable  risks. 

The  Imperial  German  Government  will  not  expect  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  to  omit  any  word  or  any 
act  necessary  to  the  performance  of  its  sacred  duty  of 
maintaining  the  rights  of  the  United  States  and  its  citi 
zens  and  of  safeguarding  their  free  exercise  and  enjoyment. 

BRYAN. 


24S 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

WILSON'S  SECOND  AND  THIRD  NOTES  TO  GERMANY  ON  SINK 
ING  OF   "LUSITANIA"  AND  OTHER  ATTACKS  ON 
AMERICAN  LIFE  AND  PROPERTY  AT  SEA 

[Germany's  reply  (May  28,  1915)  to  the  first  note  was  conciliatory 
but  unsatisfactory.  It  set  up  the  contention  that  the  Lusitania 
had  been  armed.  It  alleged  also  that  the  rapid  sinking  was  due 
not  to  the  torpedo,  but  to  the  explosion  of  ammunition.  The  note 
asked  for  permission  to  reserve  a  final  statement  pending  the 
American  reply  to  these  and  several  other  points  of  contention. 
On  June  1  followed  Germany's  explanation  of  attacks  on  the 
American  cargo-steamships  Gulf  light  and  dishing.  The  American 
reply  was:] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  June  9,  1915. 

To  Ambassador  Gerard  (Berlin): 

You  are  instructed  to  deliver  textually  the  following 
note  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs: 

In  compliance  with  Your  Excellency's  request  I  did  not 
fail  to  transmit  to  my  Government  immediately  upon  their 
receipt  your  note  of  May  28  in  reply  to  my  note  of  May  15, 
and  your  supplementary  note  of  June  1,  setting  forth  the 
conclusions  so  far  as  reached  by  the  Imperial  German  Gov 
ernment  concerning  the  attacks  on  the  American  steamers 
Cushmg  and  Gulflight.  I  am  now  instructed  by  my  Gov 
ernment  to  communicate  the  following  reply: 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  notes  with  gratifi 
cation  the  full  recognition  by  the  Imperial  German  Govern 
ment,  in  discussing  the  cases  of  the  Gushing  and  the 
Gulflight,  of  the  principle  of  the  freedom  of  all  parts  of 
the  open  sea  to  neutral  ships  and  the  frank  willingness  of 
the  Imperial  German  Government  to  acknowledge  arid  meet 
its  liability  where  the  fact  of  attack  upon  neutral  ships 
"which  have  not  been  guilty  of  any  hostile  act"  by  Ger 
man  air  craft  or  vessels  of  war  is  satisfactorily  established; 
and  the  Government  of  the  United  States  will  in  due  course 
lay  before  the  Imperial  German  Government,  as  it  requests, 


Woodrow    Wilson 

full  information  concerning  the  attack  on  the  steamer 
Gushing. 

With  regard  to  the  sinking  of  the  steamer  Falaba,  by 
which  an  American  citizen  lost  his  life,  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  is  surprised  to  find  the  Imperial  German 
Government  contending  that  an  effort  on  the  part  of  a 
merchantman  to  escape  capture  and  secure  assistance  alters 
the  obligation  of  the  officer  seeking  to  make  the  capture 
in  respect  of  the  safety  of  the  lives  of  those  on  board  the 
merchantman,  although  the  vessel  had  ceased  her  attempt 
to  escape  when  torpedoed.  These  are  not  new  circum 
stances.  They  have  been  in  the  minds  of  statesmen  and  of 
international  jurists  throughout  the  development  of  naval 
warfare,  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States  does 
not  understand  that  they  have  ever  been  held  to  alter  the 
principles  of  humanity  upon  which  it  has  insisted.  Noth 
ing  but  actual  forcible  resistance  or  continued  efforts  to 
escape  by  flight  when  ordered  to  stop  for  the  purpose  of 
visit  on  the  part  of  the  merchantman  has  ever  been  held  to 
forfeit  the  lives  of  her  passengers  or  crew.  The  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  however,  does  not  understand 
that  the  Imperial  German  Government  is  seeking  in  this 
case  to  relieve  itself  of  liability,  but  only  intends  to  set 
forth  the  circumstances  which  led  the  commander  of  the 
submarine  to  allow  himself  to  be  hurried  into  the  course 
which  he  took. 

Your  Excellency's  note,  in  discussing  the  loss  of  Ameri 
can  lives  resulting  from  the  sinking  of  the  steamship  Lusi- 
tan'ia,  adverts  at  some  length  to  certain  information  which 
the  Imperial  German  Government  has  received  with  regard 
to  the  character  and  outfit  of  that  vessel,  and  Your  Ex 
cellency  expresses  the  fear  that  this  information  may  not 
have  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States.  It  is  stated  in  the  note  that  the  Lusi- 
tan'ia  was  undoubtedly  equipped  with  masked  guns,  supplied 
with  trained  gunners  and  special  ammunition,  transporting 


Woodrow    Wilson 

troops  from  Canada,  carrying  a  cargo  not  permitted  under 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  to  a  vessel  also  carrying  pas 
sengers,  and  serving,  in  virtual  effect,  as  an  auxiliary  to 
the  naval  forces  of  Great  Britain.  Fortunately,  these  are 
matters  concerning  which  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  in  a  position  to  give  the  Imperial  German  Govern 
ment  official  information.  Of  the  facts  alleged  in  Your 
Excellency's  note,  if  true,  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  have  been  bound  to  take  official  cognizance 
in  performing  its  recognized  duty  as  a  neutral  power  and 
in  enforcing  its  national  laws.  It  was  its  duty  to  see  tc- 
it  that  the  Lusitania  was  not  armed  for  offensive  action, 
that  she  was  not  serving  as  a  transport,  that  she  did  not 
carry  a  cargo  prohibited  by  the  statutes  of  the  United 
States,  and  that,  if  in  fact  she  was  a  naval  vessel  of  Great 
Britain,  she  should  not  receive  clearance  as  a  merchantman ; 
and  it  performed  that  duty  and  enforced  its  statutes  with 
scrupulous  vigilance  through  its  regularly  constituted  offi 
cials.  It  is  able,  therefore,  to  assure  the  Imperial  German 
Government  that  it  has  been  misinformed.  If  the  Imperial 
German  Government  should  deem  itself  to  be  in  possession 
of  convincing  evidence  that  the  officials  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  did  not  perform  these  duties  with 
thoroughness,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  sin 
cerely  hopes  that  it  will  submit  that  evidence  for  con 
sideration. 

Whatever  may  be  the  contentions  of  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  regarding  the  carriage  of  contraband  of 
war  on  board  the  Lusitania  or  regarding  the  explosion  of 
that  material  by  the  torpedo,  it  need  only  be  said  that  in  the 
view  of  this  Government  these  contentions  are  irrelevant 
to  the  question  of  the  legality  of  the  methods  used  by  the 
German  naval  authorities  in  sinking  the  vessel. 

But  the  sinking  of  passenger  ships  involves  principles 
of  humanity  which  throw  into  the  background  any  special 
circumstances  of  detail  that  may  be  thought  to  affect  the 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

cases,  principles  which  lift  it,  as  the  Imperial  German 
Government  will  nd  doubt  be  quick  to  recognize  and  ac 
knowledge,  out  of  the  class  of  ordinary  subjects  of  diplo 
matic  discussion  or  of  international  controversy.  What 
ever  be  the  other  facts  regarding  the  Lusitania,  the  prin 
cipal  fact  is  that  a  great  steamer,  primarily  and  chiefly  a 
conveyance  for  passengers,  and  carrying  more  than  a  thou 
sand  souls  who  had  no  part  or  lot  in  the  conduct  of  the 
war,  was  torpedoed  and  sunk  without  so  much  as  a  chal 
lenge  or  a  warning,  and  that  men,  women,  and  children 
were  sent  to  their  death  in  circumstances  unparalleled  in 
modern  warfare.  The  fact  that  more  than  one  hundred 
American  citizens  were  among  those  who  perished  made 
it  the  duty  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to 
speak  of  these  things  and  once  more,  with  solemn  emphasis, 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  Imperial  German  Government 
to  the  grave  responsibility  which  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  conceives  that  it  has  incurred  in  this  tragic 
occurrence,  and  to  the  indisputable  principle  upon  which 
that  responsibility  rests.  The  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  contending  for  something  much  greater  than  mere 
rights  of  property  or  privileges  of  commerce.  It  is  con 
tending  for  nothing  less  high  and  sacred  than  the  rights 
of  humanity,  which  every  Government  honors  itself  in  re 
specting  and  which  no  Government  is  justified  in  resigning 
on  behalf  of  those  under  its  care  and  authority.  Only  her 
actual  resistance  to  capture  or  refusal  to  stop  when  ordered 
to  do  so  for  the  purpose  of  visit  could  have  afforded  the 
commander  of  the  submarine  any  justification  for  so  much 
as  putting  the  lives  of  those  on  board  the  ship  in  jeopardy. 
This  principle  the  Government  of  the  United  States  under 
stands  the  explicit  instructions  issued  on  August  3,  1914, 
by  the  Imperial  German  Admiralty  to  its  commanders  at 
sea  to  have  recognized  and  embodied  as  do  the  naval  codes 
of  all  other  nations,  and  upon  it  every  traveler  and  seaman 
had  a  right  to  depend.  It  is  upon  this  principle  of  humanity 

247 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

as  well  as  upon  the  law  founded  upon  this  principle  that 
the  United  States  must  stand. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is  happy  to  observe 
that  Your  Excellency's  note  closes  with  the  intimation 
that  the  Imperial  German  Government  is  willing,  now  as 
before,  to  accept  the  good  offices  of  the  United  States  in 
an  attempt  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Govern 
ment  of  Great  Britain  by  which  the  character  and  condi 
tions  of  the  war  upon  the  sea  may  be  changed.  The  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  would  consider  it  a  privilege 
thus  to  serve  its  friends  and  the  world.  It  stands  ready 
at  any  time  to  convey  to  either  Government  any  intimation 
or  suggestion  the  other  may  be  willing  to  have  it  convey 
and  cordially  invites  the  Imperial  German  Government  to 
make  use  of  its  services  in  this  way  at  its  convenience. 
The  whole  world  is  concerned  in  anything  that  may  bring 
about  even  a  partial  accommodation  of  interests  or  in  any 
way  mitigate  the  terrors  of  the  present  distressing  conflict. 

In  the  meantime,  whatever  arrangement  may  happily  be 
made  between  the  parties  to  the  war,  and  whatever  may 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Imperial  German  Government  have 
been  the  provocation  or  the  circumstantial  justification  for 
the  past  acts  of  its  commanders  at  sea,  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  confidently  looks  to  see  the  justice  and 
humanity  of  the  Government  of  Germany  vindicated  in  all 
cases  where  Americans  have  been  wronged  or  their  rights 
as  neutrals  invaded. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  therefore  very 
earnestly  and  very  solemnly  renews  the  representations  of 
its  note  transmitted  to  the  Imperial  German  Government 
on  the  1 5th  of  May,  and  relies  in  these  representations  upon 
the  principles  of  humanity,  the  universally  recognized 
understandings  of  international  law,  and  the  ancient  friend 
ship  of  the  German  nation. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  cannot  admit  that 
the  proclamation  of  a  war  zone  from  which  neutral  ships 

248 


IVoodrow    Wilson 

have  been  warned  to  keep  away  may  be  made  to  operate 
as  in  any  degree  an  abbreviation  of  the  rights  either  of 
American  shipmasters  or  of  American  citizens  bound  on 
lawful  errands  as  passengers  on  merchant  ships  of  bel 
ligerent  nationality.  It  does  not  understand  the  Imperial 
German  Government  to  question  those  rights.  It  under 
stands  it,  also,  to  accept  as  established  beyond  question 
the  principle  that  the  lives  of  noncombatants  cannot  law 
fully  or  rightfully  be  put  in  jeopardy  by  the  capture  or 
destruction  of  an  unresisting  merchantman,  and  to  recognize 
the  obligation  to  take  sufficient  precaution  to  ascertain 
whether  a  suspected  merchantman  is  in  fact  of  belligerent 
nationality  or  is  in  fact  carrying  contraband  of  war  under 
a  neutral  flag.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  there 
fore  deems  it  reasonable  to  expect  that  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  will  adopt  the  measures  necessary  to  put 
these  principles  into  practice  in  respect  of  the  safeguarding 
of  American  lives  and  American  ships,  and  asks  for  assur 
ances  that  this  will  be  done. 

ROBERT  LANSING. 

[Germany's  reply  (July  8)  was  increasingly  conciliatory,  but 
remained  unsatisfactory  on  the  main  issue.  It  dwelt  on  Great 
Britain's  illegal  blockade  and  offered  to  grant  complete  immunity 
to  passenger  ships  under  the  control  of  the  American  Government 
and  distinguished  by  special  marks.  The  American  reply  was :] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGON,  July  21,  1915. 

To  Ambassador  Gerard  (Berlin): 

You  are  instructed  to  deliver  textually  the  following 
note  to  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs: 

The  note  of  the  Imperial  German  Government,  dated  the 
8th  of  July,  1915,  has  received  the  careful  consideration  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  it  regrets  to  be 
obliged  to  say  that  it  has  found  it  very  unsatisfactory, 
because  it  fails  to  meet  the  real  differences  between  the  two 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Governments  and  indicates  no  way  in  which  the  accepted 
principles  of  law  and  humanity  may  be  applied  in  the  grave 
jaatter  in  cotroversy,  but  proposes,  on  the  contrary,  ar 
rangements  for  a  partial  suspension  of  those  principles 
which  virtually  set  them  aside. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  notes  with  satis 
faction  that  the  Imperial  German  Government  recognizes 
without  reservation  the  validity  of  the  principles  insisted 
on  in  the  several  communications  which  this  Government 
has  addressed  to  the  Imperial  German  Government  with 
regard  to  its  announcement  of  a  war  zone  and  the  use  of 
submarines  against  merchantmen  on  the  high  seas — the  prin 
ciple  that  the  high  seas  are  free,  that  the  character  and 
cargo  of  a  merchantman  must  first  be  ascertained  before 
she  can  lawfully  be  seized  or  destroyed,  and  that  the  lives 
of  non-combatants  may  in  no  case  be  put  in  jeopardy  un 
less  the  vessel  resists  or  seeks  to  escape  after  being  sum 
moned  to  submit  to  examination;  for  a  belligerent  act  of 
retaliation  is  per  se  an  act  beyond  the  law,  and  the  de 
fense  of  an  act  as  retaliatory  is  an  admission  that  it  is 
illegal. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is,  however,  keenly 
disappointed  to  find  that  the  Imperial  German  Government 
regards  itself  as  in  large  degree  exempt  from  the  obligation 
to  observe  these  principles,  even  where  neutral  vessels  are 
concerned,  by  what  it  believes  the  policy  and  practice  of 
the  Government  of  Great  Britain  to  be  in  the  present  war 
with  regard  to  neutral  commerce.  The  Imperial  German 
Government  will  readily  understand  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  can  not  discuss  the  policy  of  the  Gov 
ernment  of  Great  Britain  with  regard  to  neutral  trade  ex 
cept  with  that  Government  itself,  and  that  it  must  regard 
the  conduct  of  other  belligerent  governments  as  irrelevant 
to  any  discussion,  with  the  Imperial  German  Government  of 
what  this  Government  regards  as  grave  and  unjustifiable 
violations  of  the  rights  of  American  citizens  by  German 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

naval  commanders.  Illegal  and  inhuman  acts,  however 
justifiable  they  may  be  thought  to  be  against  an  enemy  who 
is  believed  to  have  acted  in  contravention  of  law  and  hu 
manity,  are  manifestly  indefensible  when  they  deprive  neu 
trals  of  their  acknowledged  rights,  particularly  when  they 
violate  the  right  to  life  itself.  If  a  belligerent  can  not 
retaliate  against  an  enemy  without  injuring  the  lives  of 
neutrals,  as  well  as  their  property,  humanity,  as  well  as 
justice  and  a  due  regard  for  the  dignity  of  neutral  powers, 
should  dictate  that  the  practice  be  discontinued.  If  per 
sisted  in  it  would  in  such  circumstances  constitute  an  un 
pardonable  offense  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  neutral 
nation  affected.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  is 
not  unmindful  of  the  extraordinary  conditions  created  by 
this  war  or  of  the  radical  alterations  of  circumstance  and 
method  of  attack  produced  by  the  use  of  instrumentalities 
of  naval  warfare  which  the  nations  of  the  world  can  not 
have  had  in  view  when  the  existing  rules  of  international 
law  were  formulated,  and  it  is  ready  to  make  every  reason 
able  allowance  for  these  novel  and  unexpected  aspects  of 
war  at  sea ;  but  it  can  not  consent  to  abate  any  essential  or 
fundamental  right  of  its  people  because  of  a  mere  altera 
tion  of  circumstance.  The  rights  of  neutrals  in  time  of  war 
are  based  upon  principle,  not  upon  expediency,  and  the 
principles  are  immutable.  It  is  the  duty  and  obligation  of 
belligerents  to  find  a  way  to  adapt  the  new  circumstances 
to  them. 

The  events  of  the  past  two  months  have  clearly  indicated 
that  it  is  possible  and  practicable  to  conduct  such  sub 
marine  operations  as  have  characterized  the  activity  of  the 
Imperial  German  Navy  within  the  so-called  war  zone  in 
substantial  accord  with  the  accepted  practices  of  regulated 
warfare.  The  whole  world  has  looked  with  interest  and 
increasing  satisfaction  at  the  demonstration  of  that  possi 
bility  by  German  naval  commanders.  It  is  manifestly  pos 
sible,  therefore,  to  lift  the  whole  practice  of  submarine 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

attack  above  the  criticism  which  it  has  aroused  and  remove 
the  chief  causes  of  offense. 

In  view  of  the  admission  of  illegality  made  by  the  Im 
perial  Government  when  it  pleaded  the  right  of  retaliation 
in  defense  of  its  acts,  and  in  view  of  the  manifest  possibility 
of  conforming  to  the  established  rules  of  naval  warfare,  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  can  not  believe  that  the 
Imperial  Government  will  longer  refrain  from  disavowing 
the  wanton  act  of  its  naval  commander  in  sinking  the  Lusi- 
tania  or  from  offering  reparation  for  the  American  lives 
lost,  so  far  as  reparation  can  be  made  for  a  needless  destruc 
tion  of  human  life  by  an  illegal  act. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States,  while  not  in 
different  to  the  friendly  spirit  in  which  it  is  made,  can  not 
accept  the  suggestion  of  the  Imperial  German  Government 
that  certain  vessels  be  designated  and  agreed  upon  which 
shall  be  free  on  the  seas  now  illegally  proscribed.  The  very 
agreement  would,  by  implication,  subject  other  vessels  to 
illegal  attack  and  would  be  a  curtailment  and  therefore  an 
abandonment  of  the  principles  for  which  this  Government 
contends  and  which  in  times  of  calmer  counsels  every  na 
tion  would  concede  as  of  course. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  and  the  Imperial 
German  Government  are  contending  for  the  same  great 
object,  have  long  stood  together  in  urging  the  very  prin 
ciples,  upon  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
now  so  solemnly  insists.  They  are  both  contending  for  the 
freedom  of  the  seas.  The  Government  of  the  .United  States 
will  continue  to  contend  for  that  freedom,  from  whatever 
quarter  violated,  without  compromise  and  at  any  cost.  It 
invites  the  practical  co-operation  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government  at  this  time  when  co-operation  may  accomplish 
most  and  this  great  common  object  be  most  strikingly  and 
effectively  achieved. 

The  Imperial  German  Government  expresses  the  hope 
that  this  object  may  be  in  some  measure  accomplished 


Woodrow 

even  before  the  present  war  ends.  It  can  be.  The  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  not  only  feels  obliged  to  insist 
upon  it,  by  whomsoever  violated  or  ignored,  in  the  protec 
tion  of  its  own  citizens,  but  is  also  deeply  interested  in 
seeing  it  made  practicable  between  the  belligerents  them 
selves,  and  holds  itself  ready  at  any  time  to  act  as  the 
common  friend  who  may  be  privileged  to  suggest  a  way. 

In  the  meantime  the  very  value  which  this  Government 
sets  upon  the  long  and  unbroken  friendship  between  the 
people  and  Government  of  the  United  States  and  the  peo 
ple  and  Government  of  the  German  nation  impels  it  to 
press  very  solemnly  upon  the  Imperial  German  Govern 
ment  the  necessity  for  a  scrupulous  observance  of  neutral 
rights  in  this  critical  matter.  Friendship  itself  prompts  it 
to  say  to  the  Imperial  Government  that  repetition  by  the 
commanders  of  German  naval  vessels  of  acts  in  contraven 
tion  of  those  rights  must  be  regarded  by  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  when  they  affect  American  citizens, 
as  deliberately  unfriendly. 

LANSING. 

GERMANY  PROMISES  THAT  LINERS  SHALL  NOT  BE  SUNK 
WITHOUT  WARNING 

[Soon  after*  the  third  note  on  the  submarine  issue,  Germany 
conveyed  to  the  United  States  Government  its  decision  to  modify 
submarine  warfare  to  remove  American  causes  of  offense. 

August  19,  1915,  the  White  Star  liner  Arabic,  bound  from  Liver 
pool  to  New  York,  was  torpedoed  and  sunk  off  Fastnet  with  the 
loss  of  some  lives,  including  Americans.  August  24,  1915,  while 
the  investigation  still  was  unfinished,  the  German  Ambassador  in 
Washington  promised  full  satisfaction.  September  1  the  German 
Ambassador  informed  the  State  Department  officially  that  before 
the  Arabic  sinking,  and  as  a  result  of  the  American  contentions 
in  the  Lusitania  case,  German  submarine  commanders  had  been 
instructed  to  attack  no  liners  without  warning.  October  5  the 
Ambassador  stated  to  the  American  Government  that  the  orders 
had  been  made  so  stringent  that  a  recurrence  was  out  of  the 
question.  October  20  Germany  forwarded  certified  copies  of  the 
official  examination  of  the  submarine's  crew.  The  consensus  of 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

these  was  that  while  the  submarine  was  sinking  a  British  cargo 
vessel  which  she  had  captured,  a  large  steamship  (not  known  by 
them  at  the  time  to  be  the  Arabic,)  approached  as  if  to  ram. 
The  testimony  of  the  Arabic's  officers  was  positively  that  there  had 
been  no  intention  of  attacking  the  submarine,  which  they  declared 
had  not  been  seen  by  them.  The  testimony  also  developed  the 
fact  that  the  Arabic,  which  had  sighted  the  sinking  cargo  steamer 
first  from  a  distance  of  about  7  miles,  had  approached  to  a  distance 
estimated  variously  as  3  miles  to  iy3  miles,  and  that  she  began  a 
zig-zag  course  at  a  distance  of  about  4  miles. 

October  5  (before  these  papers  reached  America)  Germany 
informed  the  United  States  that  while  the  submarine  commander 
had  believed  that  the  Arabic  had  approached  to  ram  him,  the 
German  government  did  not  doubt  the  good  faith  of  the  Arabic's 
officers  in  their  testimony  and  that,  therefore,  the  attack  on  the 
liner  was  a  violation  of  instructions,  that  the  act  was  regretted 
and  disavowed,  and  that  indemnity  would  be  paid  for  the  American 
lives  lost.  October  20  this  declaration  was  repeated. 

November  7  the  Italian  steamship  Ancona  was  sunk  by  an 
Austrian  submarine  in  the  Mediterranean  and  on  December  6, 
191o,  President  Wilson  sent  the  following  note  to  Austria:] 

WILSON'S  NOTE  TO  AUSTRIA  ON  ANCONA  AFFAIR 
DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  December  6,  1915. 
To  Ambassador  Penfield  (Vienna): 

Please  deliver  a  note  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
textually  as  follows: 

Reliable  information  obtained  from  American  and  other 
survivors  who  were  passengers  on  the  steamship  Ancona 
shows  that  on  Nov.  7  a  submarine  flying  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  flag  fired  a  solid  shot  toward  the  steamship,  that 
thereupon  the  Ancona  attempted  to  escape,  but,  being  over 
hauled  by  the  submarine,  she  stopped,  that  after  a  brief 
period  and  before  the  crew  and  passengers  were  all  able 
to  take  to  the  boats  the  submarine  fired  a  number  of  shells 
at  the  vessel  and  finally  torpedoed  and  sank  her  while  there 
were  yet  many  persons  on  board,  and  that  by  gunfire  and 
foundering  of  the  vessel  a  large  number  of  persons  lost  their 
lives  or  were  seriously  injured,  among  whom  were  citizens 
of  the  United  States. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

The  public  statement  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Admiralty 
has  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  and  received  careful  consideration.  This 
statement  substantially  confirms  the  principal  declaration 
of  the  survivors,  as  it  admits  that  the  Ancona,  after  being 
shelled,  was  torpedoed  and  sunk  while  persons  were  still 
on  board. 

The  Austro-Hungarian  Government  has  been  advised, 
through  the  correspondence  which  has  passed  between  the 
United  States  and  Germany,  of  the  attitude  of  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  as  to  the  use  of  submarines  in 
attacking  vessels  of  commerce,  and  the  acquiescence  of  Ger 
many  in  that  attitude,  yet  with  full  knowledge  on  the  part 
of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government  of  the  views  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  as  expressed  in  no  un 
certain  terms  to  the  ally  of  Austria-Hungary,  the  com 
mander  of  the  submarine  which  attacked  the  Ancona  failed 
to  put  in  a  place  of  safety  the  crew  and  passengers  of  the 
vessel  which  they  purposed  to  destroy  because,  it  is  pre 
sumed,  of  the  impossibility  of  taking  it  into  port  as  a  prize 
of  war. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  considers  that  the 
commander  violated  the  principles  of  international  law  and 
of  humanity  by  shelling  and  torpedoing  the  Ancona  before 
the  persons  on  board  had  been  put  in  a  place  of  safety  or 
even  given  sufficient  time  to  leave  the  vessel.  The  conduct 
of  the  commander  can  only  be  characterized  as  wanton 
slaughter  of  defenseless  noncombatants,  since  at  the  time 
when  the  vessel  was  shelled  and  torpedoed  she  was  not,  it 
appears,  resisting  or  attempting  to  escape,  and  no  other 
reason  is  sufficient  to  excuse  such  an  attack,  not  even  the 
possibility  of  rescue. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is  forced,  there 
fore,  to  conclude  either  that  the  commander  of  the  sub 
marine  acted  in  violation  of  his  instructions  or  that  the 
Imperial  and  Royal  Government  failed  to  issue  instruc- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

tions  to  the  commanders  of  its  submarines  in  accordance 
with  the  law  of  nations  and  the  principles  of  humanity.  The 
Government  of  the  United  States  is  unwilling  to  believe  the 
latter  alternative  and  to  credit  the  Austro-Hungarian  Gov 
ernment  with  an  intention  to  permit  its  submarines  to  de 
stroy  the  lives  of  helpless  men,  women  and  children.  It 
prefers  to  believe  that  the  commander  of  the  submarine  com 
mitted  this  outrage  without  authority  and  contrary  to 
the  general  or  special  instructions  which  he  had  re 
ceived. 

As  the  good  relations  of  the  two  countries  must  rest  upon 
a  common  regard  for  law  and  humanity,  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  cannot  be  expected  to  dc  otherwise 
than  to  cL^iand  that  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Government 
denounce  the  sinking  of  the  Ancona  as  an  illegal  and  in 
defensible  act;  that  the  officer  who  perpetrated  the  deed  be 
punished,  and  that  reparation  by  the  payment  of  an 
indemnity  be  made  for  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  who  were  killed  or  injured  by  the  attack  on  the 
vessel. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  expects  that  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Government,  appreciating  the  gravity  of 
the  case,  will  accede  to  its  demand  promptly,  and  it  rests 
this  expectation  on  the  belief  that  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Government  will  not  sanction  or  defend  an  act  which  is 
condemned  by  the  world  as  inhumane  and  barbarous,  which 
is  abhorrent  to  all  civilized  nations,  and  which  has  caused 
the  death  of  innocent  American  citizens. 

LANSING. 

[The  Austrian  reply  was  eminently  unsatisfactory  and  asked  for 
more  specifications  and  proofs,  but  after  some  irritating  corre 
spondence  announced  that  the  commander  of  the  submarine  had 
been  punished. 

March  24,  1916,  the  British  channel  steamer  Sussex,  bound  from 
Folkestone,  England,  to  Dieppe,  France,  was  torpedoed  and  after 
full  investigation  the  United  States  sent  the  following  communica 
tion  to  Germany:] 

256 


Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  NOTE  ON  SUSSEX  AFFAIR  AND  ON  GENERAL  SUB 
MARINE  WARFARE  AGAINST  MERCHANT  SHIPS 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
WASHINGTON,  April  18,  1916. 
To   Ambassador   Gerard   (Berlin): 

You  are  instructed  to  deliver  to  the  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs  a  communication  reading  as  follows: 

I  did  not  fail  to  transmit  immediately,  by  telegraph,  to 
my  Government  Your  Excellency's  note  of  the  10th  instant 
in  regard  to  certain  attacks  by  German  submarines,  and 
particularly  in  regard  to  the  disastrous  explosion  which  on 
March  24,  last,  wrecked  the  French  steamship  Sussex  in 
the  English  Channel.  I  have  now  the  honor  to  deliver, 
under  instruction  from  my  Government,  the  following  re 
ply  to  Your  Excellency: 

Information  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  fully  establishes  the  facts  in  the  case 
of  the  Sussex,  and  the  inferences  which  my  Government 
has  drawn  from  that  information  it  regards  as  confirmed 
by  the  circumstances  set  forth  in  Your  Excellency's  note 
of  the  10th  instant.  On  the  24th  of  March,  1916,  at  about 
2.50  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  unarmed  steamer  Sussex, 
with  325  or  more  passengers  on  board,  among  whom  were 
a  number  of  American  citizens,  was  torpedoed  while  cross 
ing  from  Folkestone  to  Dieppe.  The  Sussex  had  never  been 
armed;  was  a  vessel  known  to  be  habitually  used  only  for 
the  conveyance  of  passengers  across  the  English  Channel; 
and  was  not  following  the  route  taken  by  troop  ships  or 
supply  ships.  About  80  of  her  passengers,  noncombatants 
of  all  ages  and  sexes,  including  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  were  killed  or  injured. 

A  careful,  detailed,  and  scrupulously  impartial  investiga 
tion  by  naval  and  military  officers  of  the  United  States  has 
conclusively  established  the  fact  that  the  Sussex  was  tor 
pedoed  without  warning  or  summons  to  surrender  and  that 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

the  torpedo  by  which  she  was  struck  was  of  German  manu 
facture.  In  the  view  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  these  facts  from  the  first  made  the  conclusion  that 
the  torpedo  was  fired  by  a  German  submarine  unavoidable. 
It  now  considers  that  conclusion  substantiated  by  the  state 
ments  of  Your  Excellency's  note.  A  full  statement  of  the 
facts  upon  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has 
based  its  conclusion  is  inclosed. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States,  after  having  given 
careful  consideration  to  the  note  of  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment  of  the  10th  of  April,  regrets  to  state  that  the  impres 
sion  made  upon  it  by  the  statements,  and  proposals  con 
tained  in  that  note  is  that  the  Imperial  Government  has 
failed  to  appreciate  the  gravity  of  the  situation  which  has 
resulted,  not  alone  from  the  attack  on  the  Sussex  but  from 
the  whole  method  and  character  of  submarine  warfare  as 
disclosed  by  the  unrestrained  practice  of  the  commanders 
of  German  undersea  craft  during  the  past  twelvemonth  and 
more  in  the  indiscriminate  destruction  of  merchant  vessels 
of  all  sorts,  nationalities,  and  destinations.  If  the  sinking 
of  the  Sussex  had  been  an  isolated  case  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  might  find  it  possible  to  hope  that  the 
officer  who  was  responsible  for  that  act  had  wilfully  vio 
lated  his  orders  or  had  been  criminally  negligent  in  taking 
none  of  the  precautions  they  prescribed,  and  that  the  ends 
of  justice  might  be  satisfied  by  imposing  upon  him  an  ade 
quate  punishment,  coupled  with  a  formal  disavowal  of  the 
act  and  payment  of  a  suitable  indemnity  by  the  Imperial 
Government.  But,  though  the  attack  upon  the  Sussex  was 
manifestly  indefensible  and  caused  a  loss  of  life  so  tragical 
as  to  make  it  stand  forth  as  one  of  the  most  terrible  ex 
amples  of  the  inhumanity  of  submarine  warfare  as  the  com 
manders  of  German  vessels  are  conducting  it,  it  unhappily 
does  not  stand  alone. 

On  the  contrary,  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  forced  by  recent  events  to  conclude  that  it  is  only  one 

258 


Woodrow    Wilson 

instance,  even  though  one  of  the  most  extreme  and  most 
distressing  instances,  of  the  deliberate  method  and  spirit 
of  indiscriminate  destruction  of  merchant  vessels  of  all 
sorts,  nationalities,  and  destinations  which  have  become 
more  and  more  unmistakable  as  the  activity  of  German 
undersea  vessels  of  war  has  in  recent  months  been  quick 
ened  and  extended. 

The  Imperial  Government  will  recall  that  when,  in  Feb 
ruary,  1915,  it  announced  its  intention  of  treating  the 
waters  surrounding  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  as  embraced 
within  the  seat  of  war  and  of  destroying  all  merchant  ships 
owned  by  its  enemies  that  might  be  found  within  that  zone 
of  danger,  and  warned  all  vessels,  neutral  as  well  as  bel 
ligerent,  to  keep  out  of  the  waters  thus  proscribed  or  to 
enter  them  at  their  peril,  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  earnestly  protested.  It  took  the  position  that  such 
a  policy  could  not  be  pursued  without  constant  gross  and 
palpable  violations  of  the  accepted  law  of  nations,  par 
ticularly  if  submarine  craft  were  to  be  employed  as  its 
instruments,  inasmuch  as  the  rules  prescribed  by  that  law, 
rules  founded  on  the  principles  of  humanity  and  established 
for  the  protection  of  the  lives  of  noncombatants  at  sea, 
could  not  in  the  nature  of  the  case  be  observed  by  such  ves 
sels.  It  based  its  protest  on  the  ground  that  persons  of 
neutral  nationality  and  vessels  of  neutral  ownership  would 
be  exposed  to  extreme  and  intolerable  risks;  and  that  no 
right  to  close  any  part  of  the  high  seas  could  lawfully  be 
asserted  by  the  Imperial  Government  in  the  circumstances 
then  existing.  The  law  of  nations  in  these  matters,  upon 
which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  based  that  pro 
test,  is  not  of  recent  origin  or  founded  upon  merely  arbi 
trary  principles  set  up  by  convention.  It  is  based,  on  the 
contrary,  upon  manifest  principles  of  humanity  and  has 
long  been  established  with  the  approval  and  by  the  express 
assent  of  all  civilized  nations. 

The  Imperial  Government,  notwithstanding,  persisted  in 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

carrying  out  the  policy  announced,  expressing  the  hope  that 
the  dangers  involved,  at  any  rate  to  neutral  vessels,  would 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum  by  the  instructions  which  it  had 
issued  to  the  commanders  of  its  submarines,  and  assuring 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  that  it  would  take 
every  possible  precaution  both  to  respect  the  rights  of  neu 
trals  and  to  safeguard  the  lives  of  noncombatants. 

In  pursuance  of  this  policy  of  submarine  warfare  against 
the  commerce  of  its  adversaries,  thus  announced  and  thus 
entered  upon  in  despite  of  the  solemn  protest  of  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States,  the  commanders  of  the  Im 
perial  Government's  undersea  vessels  have  carried  on  prac 
tices  of  such  ruthless  destruction  which  have  made  it  more 
and  more  evident  as  the  months  have  gone  by  that  the  Im 
perial  Government  has  found  it  impracticable  to  put  any 
such  restraints  upon  them  as  it  had  hoped  and  promised 
to  put.  Again  and  again  the  Imperial  Government  has 
given  its  solemn  assurances  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  that  at  least  passenger  ships  would  not  be  thus  dealt 
with,  and  yet  it  has  repeatedly  permitted  its  undersea  com 
manders  to  disregard  those  assurances  with  entire  impunity. 
As  recently  as  February  last  it  gave  notice  that  it  would 
regard  all  armed  merchantmen  owned  by  its  enemies  as  part 
of  the  armed  naval  forces  of  its  adversaries  and  deal  with 
them  as  with  men-of-war,  thus,  at  least  by  implication, 
pledging  itself  to  give  warning  to  vessels  which  were  not 
armed  and  to  accord  security  of  life  to  their  passengers  and 
crews ;  but  even  this  limitation  their  submarine  commanders 
have  recklessly  ignored. 

Vessels  of  neutral  ownership,  even  vessels  of  neutral 
ownership  bound  from  neutral  port  to  neutral  port,  have 
been  destroyed  along  with  vessels  of  belligerent  owner 
ship  in  constantly  increasing  numbers.  Sometimes  the  mer 
chantmen  attacked  have  been  warned  and  summoned  to 
surrender  before  being  fired  on  or  torpedoed;  sometimes 
their  passengers  and  crews  have  been  vouchsafed  the  poor 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

security  of  being  allowed  to  take  to  the  ship's  boats  before 
the  ship  was  sent  to  the  bottom.  But  again  and  again  no 
warning  has  been  given,  no  escape  even  to  the  ship's  boats 
allowed  to  those  on  board.  Great  liners  like  the  Lusitania 
and  Arabic  and  mere  passenger  boats  like  the  Sussex  have 
been  attacked  without  a  moment's  warning,  often  before 
they  have  even  become  aware  that  they  were  in  the  presence 
of  an  armed  ship  of  tlie  enemy,  and  the  lives  of  noncom- 
batants,  passengers,  and  crew  have  been  destroyed  whole 
sale  and  in  a  manner  which  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  can  not  but  regard  as  wanton  and  without  the  slight 
est  color  of  justification.  No  limit  of  any  kind  has  in  fact 
been  set  to  their  indiscriminate  pursuit  and  destruction  of 
merchantmen  of  all  kinds  and  nationalities  within  the  waters 
which  the  Imperial  Government  has  chosen  to  designate  as 
lying  within  the  seat  of  war.  The  roll  of  Americans  who 
have  lost  their  lives  upon  ships  thus  attacked  and  destroyed 
has  grown  month  by  month  until  the  ominous  toll  has 
mounted  into  the  hundreds. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  been  very 
patient.  At  every  stage  of  this  distressing  experience  of 
tragedy  after  tragedy  it  has  sought  to  be  governed  by  the 
most  thoughtful  consideration  of  the  extraordinary  circum 
stances  of  an  unprecedented  war  and  to  be  guided  by  senti 
ments  of  very  genuine  friendship  for  the  people  and  Gov 
ernment  of  Germany.  It  has  accepted  the  successive  ex 
planations  and  assurances  of  the  Imperial  Government  as 
of  course  given  in  entire  sincerity  and  good  faith,  and  has 
hoped,  even  against  hope,  that  it  would  prove  to  be  possible 
for  the  Imperial  Government  so  to  order  and  control  the 
acts  of  its  naval  commanders  as  to  square  its  policy  with 
the  recognized  principles  of  humanity  as  embodied  in  the 
law  of  nations.  It  has  made  every  allowance  for  unpre 
cedented  conditions  and  has  been  willing  to  wait  until  the 
facts  became  unmistakable  and  were  susceptible  of  only  one 
interpretation. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  Kinic  Papery 

It  now  owes  it  to  a  just  regard  for  its  own  rights  to 
say  to  the  Imperial  Government  that  that  time  has  come. 
It  has  become  painfully  evident  to  it  that  the  position  which 
it  took  at  the  very  outset  is  inevitable,  namely,  the  use  of 
submarines  for  the  destruction  of  an  enemy's  commerce,  is, 
of  necessity,  because  of  the  very  character  of  the  vessels 
employed  and  the  very  methods  of  attack  which  their  em 
ployment  of  course  involves,  utterly  incompatible  with  the 
principles  of  humanity,  the  long-established  and  incontro 
vertible  rights  of  neutrals,  and  the  sacred  immunities  of 
noncombatants. 

If  it  is  still  the  purpose  of  the  Imperial  Government  to 
prosecute  relentless  and  indiscriminate  warfare  against  ves 
sels  of  commerce  by  the  use  of  submarines  without  regard 
to  what  the  Government  of  the  United  States  must  consider 
the  sacred  and  indisputable  rules  of  international  law  and 
the  universally  recognized  dictates  of  humanity,  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  is  at  last  forced  to  the  con 
clusion  that  there  is  but  one  course  it  can  pursue.  Unless 
the  Imperial  Government  should  now  immediately  declare 
and  effect  an  abandonment  of  its  present  methods  of  sub 
marine  warfare  against  passenger  and  freight-carrying  ves 
sels,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  can  have  no 
choice  but  to  sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the  German 
Empire  altogether.  This  action  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  contemplates  with  the  greatest  reluctance 
but  feels  constrained  to  take  in  behalf  of  humanity  and  the 
rights  of  neutral  nations. 

LANSING. 

[April  19,  1916,  the  President  appeared  before  Congress  and 
delivered  the  following  address  (Special  Message):] 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS  ON  THE  SUSSEX  AFFAIR 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

A  situation   has   arisen  in  the   foreign   relations   of  the 


Woodrow    Wilson 

country  of  which  it  is  my  plain  duty  to  inform  you  very 
frankly. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  in  February,  1915,  the  Imperial 
German  Government  announced  its  intention  to  treat  the 
waters  surrounding  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  as  embraced 
within  the  seat  of  war  and  to  destroy  all  merchant  ships 
owned  by  its  enemies  that  might  be  found  within  any  part 
of  that  portion  of  the  high  seas,  and  that  it  warned  all 
vessels,  of  neutral  as  well  as  of  belligerent  ownership,  to 
keep  out  of  the  waters  it  had  thus  proscribed  or  else  enter 
them  at  their  peril.  The  Government  of  the  United  States 
earnestly  protested.  It  took  the  position  that  such  a  policy 
could  not  be  pursued  without  the  practical  certainty  of 
gross  and  palpable  violations  of  the  law  of  nations,  par 
ticularly  if  submarine  craft  were  to  be  employed  as  its 
instruments,  inasmuch  as  the  rules  prescribed  by  that  law, 
rules  founded  upon  principles  of  humanity  and  established 
for  the  protection  of  the  lives  of  non-combatants  at  sea, 
could  not  in  the  nature  of  the  case  be  observed  by  such 
vessels.  It  based  its  protest  on  the  ground  that  persons 
of  neutral  nationality  and  vessels  of  neutral  ownership 
would  be  exposed  to  extreme  and  intolerable  risks,  and 
that  no  right  to  close  any  part  of  the  high  seas  against 
their  use  or  to  expose  them  to  such  risks  could  lawfully  be 
asserted  by  any  belligerent  government.  The  law  of  na 
tions  in  these  matters,  upon  which  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  based  its  protest,  is  not  of  recent  origin  or 
founded  upon  merely  arbitrary  principles  set  up  by  con 
vention.  It  is  based,  on  the  contrary,  upon  manifest  and 
imperative  principles  of  humanity  and  has  long  been  estab 
lished  with  the  approval  and  by  the  express  assent  of  all 
civilized  nations. 

Notwithstanding  the  earnest  protest  of  our  Government, 
the  Imperial  German  Government  at  once  proceeded  to 
carry  out  the  policy  it  had  announced.  It  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  dangers  involved,  at  anv  rate  the  dangers  to 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

neutral  vessels,  would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum  by  the  in 
structions  which  it  had  issued  to  its  submarine  commanders, 
and  assured  the  Government  of  the  United  States  that  it 
would  take  every  possible  precaution  both  to  respect  the 
rights  of  neutrals  and  to  safeguard  the  lives  of  non-com 
batants. 

What  has  actually  happened  in  the  year  which  has  since 
elapsed  has  shown  that  those  hopes  were  not  justified,  those 
assurances  insusceptible  of  being  fulfilled.  In  pursuance 
of  the  policy  of  submarine  warfare  against  the  commerce  of 
its  adversaries,  thus  announced  and  entered  upon  by  the 
Imperial  German  Government  in  despite  of  the  solemn  pro 
test  of  this  Government,  the  commanders  of  German  under 
sea  vessels  have  attacked  merchant  ships  with  greater  and 
greater  activity,  not  only  upon  the  high  seas  surrounding 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  but  wherever  they  could  en 
counter  them,  in  a  way  that  has  grown  more  and  more  ruth 
less,  more  and  more  indiscriminate  as  the  months  have  gone 
by,  less  and  less  observant  of  restraints  of  any  kind;  and 
have  delivered  their  attacks  without  compunction  against 
vessels  of  every  nationality  and  bound  upon  every  sort  of 
errand.  Vessels  of  neutral  ownership,  even  vessels  of  neu 
tral  ownership  bound  from  neutral  port  to  neutral  port, 
have  been  destroyed  along  with  vessels  of  belligerent  owner 
ship  in  constantly  increasing  numbers.  Sometimes  the  mer 
chantman  attacked  has  been  warned  and  summoned  to 
surrender  before  being  fired  on  or  torpedoed;  sometimes 
passengers  or  crews  have  been  vouchsafed  the  poor  se 
curity  of  being  allowed  to  take  to  the  ship's  boats  before 
she  was  sent  to  the  bottom.  But  again  and  again  no  warn 
ing  has  been  given,  no  escape  even  to  the  ship's  boats  al 
lowed  to  those  on  board.  What  this  Government  foresaw 
must  happen  has  happened.  Tragedy  has  followed  trag 
edy  on  the  seas  in  such  fashion,  with  such  attendant  cir 
cumstances,  as  to  make  it  grossly  evident  that  warfare  of 
such  a  sort,  if  warfare  it  be,  can  not  be  carried  on  without 


JVoodrow    Wilson 

the  most  palpable  violation  of  the  dictates  alike  of  right  and 
of  humanity.  Whatever  the  disposition  and  intention  of 
the  Imperial  German  Government,  it  has  manifestly  proved 
impossible  for  it  to  keep  such  methods  of  attack  upon  the 
commerce  of  its  enemies  within  the  bounds  set  by  either  the 
reason  or  the  heart  of  mankind. 

In  February  of  the  present  year  the  Imperial  German 
Government  informed  this  Government  and  the  other  neu 
tral  governments  of  the  world  that  it  had'  reason  to  be 
lieve  that  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  had  armed  all 
merchant  vessels  of  British  ownership  and  had  given  them 
Secret  orders  to  attack  any  submarine  of  the  enemy  they 
might  encounter  upon  the  seas,  and  that  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  felt  justified  in  the  circumstances  in  treat 
ing  all  armed  merchantmen  of  belligerent  ownership  as 
auxiliary  vessels  of  war,  which  it  would  have  the  right  to 
destroy  without  warning.  The  law  of  nations  has  long 
recognized  the  right  of  merchantmen  to  carry  arms  for  pro 
tection  and  to  use  them  to  repel  attack,  although  to  use 
them,  in  such  circumstances,  at  their  own  risk;  but  the 
Imperial  German  Government  claimed  the  right  to  set  these 
understandings  aside  in  circumstances  which  it  deemed  ex 
traordinary.  Even  the  terms  in  which  it  announced  its 
purpose  thus  still  further  to  relax  the  restraints  it  had 
previously  professed  its  willingness  and  desire  to  put  upon 
the  operation  of  its  submarines  carried  the  plain  implica 
tion  that  at  least  vessels  which  were  not  armed  would  still 
be  exempt  from  destruction  without  warning  and  that  per 
sonal  safety  would  be  accorded  their  passengers  and  crews ; 
but  even  that  limitation,  if  it  was  ever  practicable  to  ob 
serve  it,  has  in  fact  constituted  no  check  at  all  upon  the 
destruction  of  ships  of  every  sort. 

Again  and  again  the  Imperial  German  Government  has 
given  this  Government  its  solemn  assurances  that  at  least 
passenger  ships  would  not  be  thus  dealt  with,  and  yet  it 
has  again  and  again  permitted  its  undersea  commanders 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to  disregard  those  assurances  with  entire  impunity.  Great 
liners  like  the  Lusitania  and  the  Arabic  and  mere  ferry 
boats  like  the  Sussex  have  been  attacked  without  a  moment's 
warning,  sometimes  before  they  had  even  become  aware 
that  they  were  in  the  presence  of  an  armed  vessel  of  the 
enemy,  and  the  lives  of  non-combatants,  passengers  and 
crew  have  been  sacrificed  wholesale,  in  a  manner  which  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  cannot  but  regard  as 
wanton  and  without  the  slightest  color  of  justification.  No 
limit  of  any  kind  has  in  fact  been  set  to  the  indiscriminate 
pursuit  and  destruction  of  merchantmen  of  all  kinds  and 
nationalities  within  the  waters,  constantly  extending  in  area, 
where  these  operations  have  been  carried  on;  and  the  roll 
of  Americans  who  have  lost  their  lives  on  ships  thus  at 
tacked  and  destroyed  has  grown  month  by  month  until  the 
ominous  toll  has  mounted  into  the  hundreds. 

One  of  the  latest  and  most  shocking  instances  of  this 
method  of  warfare  was  that  of  the  destruction  of  the  French 
cross  channel  steamer  Sussex.  It  must  stand  forth,  as  the 
sinking  of  the  steamer  Lusitania  did,  as  so  singularly  trag 
ical  and  unjustifiable  as  to  constitute  a  truly  terrible  ex 
ample  of  the  inhumanity  of  submarine  warfare  as  the  com 
manders  of  German  vessels  have  for  the  past  twelvemonth 
been  conducting  it.  If  this  instance  stood  alone,  some  ex 
planation,  some  disavowal  by  the  German  Government, 
some  evidence  of  criminal  mistake  or  wilful  disobedience 
on  the  part  of  the  commander  of  the  vessel  that  fired  the 
torpedo  might  be  sought  or  entertained;  but  unhappily  it 
does  not  stand  alone.  Recent  events  make  the  conclusion 
inevitable  that  it  is  only  one  instance,  even  though  it  be  one 
of  the  most  extreme  and  distressing  instances,  of  the  spirit 
and  method  of  warfare  which  the  Imperial  German  Gov 
ernment  has  mistakenly  adopted,  and  which  from  the  first 
exposed  that  Government  to  the  reproach  of  thrusting  all 
neutral  rights  aside  in  pursuit  of  its  immediate  objects. 

The   Government   of  the   United   States   has   been   very 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

patient.  At  every  stage  of  this  distressing  experience  of 
tragedy  after  tragedy  in  which  its  own  citizens  were  in 
volved  it  has  sought  to  be  restrained  from  any  extreme 
course  of  action  or  of  protest  by  a  thoughtful  consideration 
of  the  extraordinary  circumstances  of  this  unprecedented 
war,  and  actuated  in  all  that  it  said  or  did  by  the  sentiments 
of  genuine  friendship  which  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  always  entertained  and  continue  to  entertain  towards 
the  German  nation.  It  has  of  course  accepted  the  suc 
cessive  explanations  and  assurances  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government  as  given  in  entire  sincerity  and  good  faith,  and 
has  hoped,  even  against  hope,  that  it  would  prove  to  be  pos 
sible  for  the  German  Government  so  to  order  and  control 
the  acts  of  its  naval  commanders  as  to  square  its  policy  with 
the  principles  of  humanity  as  embodied  in  the  law  of  na 
tions.  It  has  been  willing  to  wait  until  the  significance  of 
the  facts  became  absolutely  unmistakable  and  susceptible 
of  but  one  interpretation. 

That  point  has  now  unhappily  been  reached.  The  facts 
are  susceptible  of  but  one  interpretation.  The  Imperial 
German  Government  has  been  unable  to  put  any  limits  or 
restraints  upon  its  warfare  against  either  freight  or  pas 
senger  ships.  It  has  therefore  become  painfully  evident 
that  the  position  which  this  Government  took  at  the  very 
outset  is  inevitable,  namely,  that  the  use  of  submarines  for 
the  destruction  of  an  enemy's  commerce  is  of  necessity,  be 
cause  of  the  very  character  of  the  vessels  employed  and  the 
very  methods  of  attack  which  their  employment  of  course 
involves,  incompatible  with  the  principles  of  humanity,  the 
long  established  and  incontrovertible  rights  of  neutrals,  and 
the  sacred  immunities  of  noncombatants. 

I  have  deemed  it  my  duty,  therefore,  to  say  to  the  Im 
perial  German  Government  that  if  it  is  still  its  purpose 
to  prosecute  relentless  and  indiscriminate  warfare  against 
vessels  of  commerce  by  the  use  of  submarines,  notwith 
standing  the  now  demonstrated  impossibility  of  conducting 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

that  warfare  in  accordance  with  what  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  must  consider  the  sacred  and  indisputable 
rules  of  international  law  and  the  universally  recognized 
dictates  of  humanity,  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  at  last  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  but  one 
course  it  can  pursue;  and  that  unless  the  Imperial  German 
Government  should  now  immediately  declare  and  effect  an 
abandonment  of  its  present  methods  of  warfare  against 
passenger  and  freight  carrying  vessels  this  Government  can 
have  no  choice  but  to  sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the 
Government  of  the  German  Empire  altogether. 

This  decision  I  have  arrived  at  with  the  keenest  regret; 
the  possibility  of  the  action  contemplated  I  am  sure  all 
thoughtful  Americans  will  look  forward  to  with  unaffected 
reluctance.  But  we  cannot  forget  that  we  are  in  some 
sort  and  by  the  force  of  circumstances  the  responsible 
spokesman  of  the  rights  of  humanity,  and  that  we  cannot 
remain  silent  while  those  rights  seem  in  process  of  being 
swept  utterly  away  in  the  maelstrom  of  this  terrible  war. 
We  owe  it  to  a  due  regard  for  our  own  rights  as  a  nation, 
to  our  sense  of  duty  as  a  representative  of  the  rights  of 
neutrals  the  world  over,  and  to  a  just  conception  of  the 
rights  of  mankind  to  take  this  stand  now  with  the  utmost 
solemnity  and  firmness. 

I  have  taken  it,  and  taken  it  in  the  confidence  that  it 
will  meet  with  your  approval  and  support.  All  sober- 
minded  men  must  unite  in  hoping  that  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government,  which  has  in  other  circumstances  stood 
as  the  champion  of  all  that  we  are  now  contending  for  in 
the  interest  of  humanity,  may  recognize  the  justice  of  our 
demands  and  meet  them  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  are 
made. 

[May  4,  1916,  Germany  in  a  long  reply  informed  the  American 
Government  that  in  order  to  avoid  further  offense  to  the  United 
States,  it  had  been  decided  to  limit  the  use  of  its  effective  weapon 
and  the  German  submarine  commanders  had  been  ordered  to  act 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

only  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  visit  and  search,  and 
that  vessels  were  not  to  be  sunk  without  first  securing  the  lives 
of  their  occupants  unless  they  attempted  to  escape  or  offer  resist 
ance.  The  note  concluded  with  the  statement  that  Germany 
expected  confidently  that  the  United  States  would  demand  and 
insist  that  the  British  Government  observe  the  rules  of  international 
law.  To  this  the  United  States  replied:] 

WILSON'S  NOTE  WHICH  CLOSED  SUBMARINE  CONTROVERSY 
FOR  NINE  MONTHS 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 

WASHINGTON,,  May  8,  1916. 

To  Ambassador  Gerard  (Berlin) : 

You  are  instructed  to  deliver  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  a  communication  textually  as  follows: 

"The  note  of  the  Imperial  German  Government  under 
date  of  May  4,  1916,  has  received  careful  consideration 
by  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  It  is  especially 
noted,  as  indicating  the  purpose  of  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment  as  to  the  future,  that  it  'is  prepared  to  do  its  utmost 
to  confine  the  operations  of  the  war  for  the  rest  of  its 
duration  to  the  fighting  forces  of  the  belligerents/  and 
that  it  is  determined  to  impose  upon  all  its  commanders 
at  sea  the  limitations  of  the  recognized  rules  of  international 
law  upon  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has 
insisted.  Throughout  the  months  which  have  elapsed  since 
the  Imperial  Government  announced,  on  February  4,  1915, 
its  submarine  policy,  now  happily  abandoned,  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  has  been  constantly  guided  and 
restrained  by  motives  of  friendship  in  its  patient  efforts 
to  bring  to  an  amicable  settlement  the  critical  questions 
arising  from  that  policy.  Accepting  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment's  declaration  of  its  abandonment  of  the  policy  which 
has  so  seriously  menaced  the  good  relations  between  the 
two  countries,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  will 
rely  upon  a  scrupulous  execution  henceforth  of  the  now 
altered  policy  of  the  Imperial  Government,  such  as  will 
remove  the  principal  danger  to  an  interruption  of  the  good 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

relations    existing   between   the    United    States    and    Ger 
many. 

"The  Government  of  the  United  States  feels  it  necessary 
to  state  that  it  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  does  not  intend  to  imply  that  the  main 
tenance  of  its  newly  announced  policy  is  in  any  way  con 
tingent  upon  the  course  or  result  of  diplomatic  negotiations 
between  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  any  other 
belligerent  Government,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  cer 
tain  passages  in  the  Imperial  Government's  note  of  the  4th 
instant  might  appear  to  be  susceptible  of  that  construction. 
In  order,  however,  to  avoid  any  possible  misunderstanding, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  notifies  the  Imperial 
Government  that  it  cannot  for  a  moment  entertain,  much 
less  discuss,  a  suggestion  that  respect  by  German  naval 
authorities  for  the  rights  of  citizens  of  tne  United  States 
upon  the  high  seas  should  in  any  way  or  in  the  slightest 
degree  be  made  contingent  upon  the  conduct  of  any  other 
Government  affecting  the  rights  of  neutrals  and  non- 
combatants.  Responsibility  in  such  matters  is  single,  not 
joint;  absolute,  not  relative/' 

LANSING. 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  This  was  the  final  diplomatic  note  in 
the  submarine  controversy.  Germany's  pledge  that  mer 
chant  vessels  would  not  be  sunk  without  warning  and  with 
out  saving  human  lives  was  observed  from  May  4>  1916,  to 
January  31,  1917.  Then  the  submarine  war  was  renewed, 
with  increased  disregard  of  neutral  rights;  and  President 
Wilson  abandoned  note-writing  and  severed  diplomatic  re- 
lations.  See  page  856.] 


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Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  LEAGUE  TO  ENFORCE  PEACE, 
WASHINGTON,  MAY  27,  1916 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  Leagues  of  individuals  who  believed 
it  possible  to  "abolish  war"  or  to  "enforce  peace,"  or  to 
establish  a  "world's  court"  that  would  adjudicate  inter 
national  controversies,  had  long  been  in  existence.  Their 
activities  increased  as  the  war  in  Europe  went  on  year  after 
year,  although  their  proposals  were  not  to  become  opera 
tive  until  the  existing  conflict  was  over.  In  the  following 
address  President  Wilson  expressed  his  belief  that  the 
United  States  would  be  willing  to  become  a  partner  in  any 
feasible  association  of  nations  formed  to  guarantee  terri 
torial  integrity  and  political  independence  and  to  prevent 
hasty  wars.] 

When  the  invitation  to  be  here  to-night  came  to  me,  I  was 
glad  to  accept  it — not  because  it  offered  me  an  opportunity 
to  discuss  the  programme  of  the  League — that  you  will,  I 
am  sure,  not  expect  of  me — but  because  the  desire  of  the 
whole  world  now  turns  eagerly,  more  and  more  eagerly, 
towards  the  hope  of  peace,  and  there  is  just  reason  why  we 
should  take  our  part  in  counsel  upon  this  great  theme.  It 
is  right  that  I,  as  spokesman  of  our  Government,  should 
attempt  to  give  expression  to  what  I  believe  to  be  the 
thought  and  purpose  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
in  this  vital  matter. 

This  great  war  that  broke  so  suddenly  upon  the  world 
two  years  ago,  and  which  has  swept  within  its  flame  so 
great  a  part  of  the  civilized  world,  has  affected  us  very 
profoundly,  and  we  are  not  only  at  liberty,  it  is  perhaps 
our  duty,  to  speak  very  frankly  of  it  and  of  the  great  in 
terests  of  civilization  which  it  affects. 

With  its  causes  and  its  objects  we  are  not  concerned.  The 
obscure  fountains  from  which  its  stupendous  flood  has  burst 
forth  we  are  not  interested  to  search  for  or  explore.  But 
so  great  a  flood,  spread  far  and  wide  to  every  quarter  of 

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the  globe,  has  of  necessity  engulfed  many  a  fair  province 
of  right  that  lies  very  near  to  us.  Our  own  rights  as  a  Na 
tion,  the  liberties,  the  privileges,  and  the  property  of  our 
people  have  been  profoundly  affected.  We  are  not  mere  dis 
connected  lookers-on.  The  longer  the  war  lasts,  the  more 
deeply  do  we  become  concerned  that  it  should  be  brought 
to  an  end  and  the  world  be  permitted  to  resume  its  normal 
life  and  course  again.  And  when  it  does  come  to  an  end 
we  shall  be  as  much  concerned  as  the  nations  at  war  to 
see  peace  assume  an  aspect  of  permanence,  give  promise  of 
days  from  which  the  anxiety  of  uncertainty  shall  be  lifted, 
bring  some  assurance  that  peace  and  war  shall  always  here 
after  be  reckoned  part  of  the  common  interest  of  mankind. 
We  are  participants,  whether  we  would  or  not,  in  the  life 
of  the  world.  The  interests  of  all  nations  are  our  own 
also.  We  are  partners  with  the  rest.  What  affects  man 
kind  is  inevitably  our  affair  as  well  as  the  affairs  of  the  na 
tions  of  Europe  and  of  Asia. 

One  observation  on  the  causes  of  the  present  war  we  are 
at  liberty  to  make,  and  to  make  it  may  throw  some  light 
forward  upon  the  future,  as  well  as  backward  upon  the 
past.  It  is  plain  that  this  war  could  have  come  only  as 
it  did,  suddenly  and  out  of  secret  counsels,  without  warning 
to  the  world,  without  discussion,  without  any  of  the  deliber 
ate  movements  of  counsel  with  which  it  would  seem  natural 
to  approach  so  stupendous  a  contest.  It  is  probable  that 
if  it  had  been  foreseen  just  what  would  happen,  just  what 
alliances  would  be  formed,  just  what  forces  arrayed  against 
one  another,  those  who  brought  the  greatest  contest  on 
would  have  been  glad  to  substitute  conference  for  force. 
If  we  ourselves  had  been  afforded  some  opportunity  to  ap 
prise  the  belligerents  of  the  attitude  which  it  would  be  our 
duty  to  take,  of  the  policies  and  practices  against  which 
we  would  feel  bound  to  use  all  our  moral  and  economic 
strength,  and  in  certain  circumstances  even  our  physical 
strength  also,  our  own  contribution  to  the  counsel  which 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

might  have  averted  the  struggle  would  have  been  con 
sidered  worth  weighing  and  regarding. 

And  the  lesson  which  the  shock  of  being  taken  by  sur 
prise  in  a  matter  so  deeply  vital  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
world  has  made  poignantly  clear  is,  that  the  peace  of  the 
world  must  henceforth  depend  upon  a  new  and  more  whole 
some  diplomacy.  Only  when  the  great  nations  of  the  world 
have  reached  some  sort  of  agreement  as  to  what  they  hold 
to  be  fundamental  to  their  common  interest,  and  as  to  some 
feasible  method  of  acting  in  concert  when  any  nation  or 
group  of  nations  seeks  to  disturb  those  fundamental  things, 
can  we  feel  that  civilization  is  at  last  in  a  way  of  justifying 
its  existence  and  claiming  to  be  finally  established.  It  is 
clear  that  nations  must  in  the  future  be  governed  by  the 
same  high  code  of  honor  that  we  demand  of  individuals. 

We  must,  indeed,  in  the  very  same  breath  with  which  we 
avow  this  conviction  admit  that  we  have  ourselves  upon  oc 
casion  in  the  past  been  offenders  against  the  law  of  diplo 
macy  which  we  thus  forecast;  but  our  conviction  is  not 
the  less  clear,  but  rather  the  more  clear,  on  that  account. 
If  this  war  has  accomplished  nothing  else  for  the  benefit 
of  the  world,  it  has  at  least  disclosed  a  great  moral  neces 
sity  and  set  forward  the  thinking  of  the  statesmen  of  the 
world  by  a  whole  age.  Repeated  utterances  of  the  leading 
statesmen  of  most  of  the  great  nations  now  engaged  in  war 
have  made  it  plain  that  their  thought  has  come  to  this, 
that  the  principle  of  public  right  must  henceforth  take 
precedence  over  the  individual  interests  of  particular  na 
tions,  and  that  the  nations  of  the  world  must  in  some  way 
band  themselves  together  to  see  that  that  right  prevails  as 
against  any  sort  of  selfish  aggression;  that  henceforth  alli 
ance  must  not  be  set  up  against  alliance,  understanding 
against  understanding,  but  that  there  must  be  a  common 
agreement  for  a  common  object,  and  that  at  the  heart  of 
that  common  object  must  lie  the  inviolable  rights  of  peo 
ples  and  of  mankind.  The  nations  of  the  world  have  be- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

come  each  other's  neighbors.  It  is  to  their  interest  that  they 
should  understand  each  other.  In  order  that  they  may  un 
derstand  each  other,  it  is  imperative  that  they  should  agree 
to  cooperate  in  a  common  cause,  and  that  they  should  so 
act  that  the  guiding  principle  of  that  common  cause  shall 
be  even-handed  and  impartial  justice. 

This  is  undoubtedly  the  thought  of  America.  This  is 
what  we  ourselves  will  say  when  there  comes  proper  occa 
sion  to  say  it.  In  the  dealings  of  nations  with  one  another 
arbitrary  force  must  be  rejected  and  we  must  move  forward 
to  the  thought  of  the  modern  world,  the  thought  of  which 
peace  is  the.  very  atmosphere.  That  thought  constitutes  a 
chief  part  of  the  passionate  conviction  of  America. 

We  believe  these  fundamental  things:  First,  that  every 
people  has  a  right  to  choose  the  sovereignty  under  which 
they  shall  live.  Like  other  nations,  we  have  ourselves  no 
doubt  once  and  again  offended  against  that  principle  when 
for  a  little  while  controlled  by  selfish  passion,  as  our  franker 
historians  have  been  honorable  enough  to  admit;  but  it  has 
become  more  and  more  our  rule  of  life  and  action.  Second, 
that  the  small  states  of  the  world  have  a  right  to  enjoy  the 
same  respect  for  their  sovereignty  and  for  their  territorial 
integrity  that  great  and  powerful  nations  expect  and  insist 
upon.  And,  third,  that  the  world  has  a  right  to  be  free 
from  every  disturbance  of  its  peace  that  has  its  origin  in 
aggression  and  disregard  of  the  rights  of  peoples  and  na 
tions. 

So  sincerely  do  we  believe  in  these  things  that  I  am 
sure  that  I  speak  the  mind  and  wish  of  the  people  of  Amer 
ica  when  I  say  that  the  United  States  is  willing  to  become  a 
partner  in  any  feasible  association  of  nations  formed  in 
order  to  realize  these  objects  and  make  them  secure  against 
violation. 

There  is  nothing  that  the  United  States  wants  for  itself 
that  any  other  nation  has.  We  are  willing,  on  the  contrary, 
to  limit  ourselves  along  with  them  to  a  prescribed  course. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

of  duty  and  respect  for  the  rights  of  others  which  will  check 
any  selfish  passion  of  our  own,  as  it  will  check  any  aggres 
sive  impulse  of  theirs. 

If  it  should  ever  be  our  privilege  to  suggest  or  initiate 
a  movement  for  peace  among  the  nations  now  at  war,  I  am 
sure  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  would  wish  their 
Government  to  move  along  these  lines:  First,  such  a  set 
tlement  with  regard  to  their  own  immediate  interests  as  the 
belligerents  may  agree  upon.  We  have  nothing  material  of 
any  kind  to  ask  for  ourselves,  and  are  quite  aware  that 
we  are  in  no  sense  or  degree  parties  to  the  present  quarrel. 
Our  interest  is  only  in  peace  and  its  future  guarantees.  Sec 
ond,  an  universal  association  of  the  nations  to  maintain  the 
inviolate  security  of  the  highway  of  the  seas  for  the  com 
mon  and  unhindered  use  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
to  prevent  any  war  begun  either  contrary  to  treaty  cove 
nants  or  without  warning  and  full  submission  of  the  causes 
to  the  opinion  of  the  world — a  virtual  guarantee  of  ter 
ritorial  integrity  and  political  independence. 

But  I  did  not  come  here,  let  me  repeat,  to  discuss  a  pro 
gramme.  I  came  only  to  avow  a  creed  and  give  expression 
to  the  confidence  I  feel  that  the  world  is  even  now  upon  the 
eve  of  a  great  consummation,  when  some  common  force 
•will  be  brought  into  existence  which  shall  safeguard  right 
as  the  first  and  most  fundamental  interest  of  all  peoples 
and  all  governments,  when  coercion  shall  be  summoned  not 
to  the  service  of  political  ambition  or  selfish  hostility,  but 
to  the  service  of  a  common  order,  a  common  justice,  and  a 
common  peace.  God  grant  that  the  dawn  of  that  day  of 
frank  dealing  and  of  settled  peace,  concord,  and  cooperation 
may  be  near  at  hand ! 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  PRESS  CLUB,  NEW  YORK; 
JUNE  30,  1916 

[An  informal  talk  on  the  Mexican  crisis.  The  American  Pun 
itive  Expedition—sent  across  the  border  in  March,  in  a  vain  at 
tempt  to  catch  the  bandit  Villa— had  been  attacked  by  Mexican 
Government  troops  at  Carrizal,  and  the  National  Guard  had  been 
ordered  to  the  border  to  assist  the  Regular  Army.  Rumors  of 
armed  intervention  in  Mexico  were  insistent.] 

I  realize  Biat  I  have  done  a  very  imprudent  thing;  I 
have  come  to  address  this  thoughtful  company  of  men  with 
out  any  preparation  whatever.  ...  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I 
have  been  absorbed  by  the  responsibilities  which  have  been 
so  frequently  referred  to  here  to-night,  and  that  preoccupa 
tion  has  made  it  impossible  for  me  to  forecast  even  what  you 
would  like  to  hear  me  talk  about.  .  .  , 

Mr.  Colby  said  something  that  was  among  the  few  things 
I  had  forecast  to  say  myself.  He  said  that  there  are  certain 
things  which  really  it  is  useless  to  debate,  because  they  go 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

Of  course  it  is  our  duty  to  prepare  this  Nation  to  take 
care  of  its  honor  and  of  its  institutions.  Why  debate  any 
part  of  that,  except  the  detail,  except  the  plan  itself,  which 
is  always  debatable? 

Of  course  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Government,  which  it  will 
never  overlook,  to  defend  the  territory  and  people  of  this 
country.  It  goes  without  saying  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
administration  to  have  constantly  in  mind  with  the  utmost 
sensitiveness  every  point  of  national  honor. 

But,  gentlemen,  after  you  have  said  and  accepted  these 
obvious  things  your  program  of  action  is  still  to  be  formed. 
When  will  you  act  and  how  will  you  act? 

The  easiest  thing  is  to  strike.  The  brutal  thing  is  the 
impulsive  thing.  No  man  has  to  think  before  he  takes  ag 
gressive  action;  but  before  a  man  really  conserves  the 
honor  by  realizing  the  ideals  of  the  Nation  he  has  to  think- 
exactly  what  he  will  do  and  how  he  will  do  it. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

Do  you  think  the  glory  of  America  would  be  enhanced 
by  a  war  of  conquest  in  Mexico?  Do  you  think  that  any 
act  of  violence  by  a  powerful  nation  like  this  against  a 
weak  and  distracted  neighbor  would  reflect  distinction  upon 
the  annals  of  the  United  States? 

Do  you  think  that  it  is  our  duty  to  carry  self-defense 
to  the  point  of  dictation  in  the  affairs  of  another  people? 
The  ideals  of  America  are  written  plain  upon  every  page  of 
American  history. 

And  I  want  you  to  know  how  fully  I  realize  whose  ser 
vant  I  am.  I  do  not  own  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  even  for  the  time  being.  I  have  no  right  in  the  use 
of  it  to  express  my  own  passions. 

I  have  no  right  to  express  my  own  ambitions  for  the  de 
velopment  of  America  if  those  ambitions  are  not  coincident 
with  the  ambitions  of  the  Nation  itself. 

And  I  have  constantly  to  remind  myself  that  I  am  not 
the  servant  of  those  who  wish  to  enhance  the  value  of  their 
Mexican  investments,  but  that  I  am  the  servant  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

I  get  a  great  many  letters,  my  fellow  citizens,  from  im 
portant  and  influential  men  in  this  country,  but  I  get  a 
great  many  other  letters.  I  get  letters  from  unknown  men, 
from  humble  women,  from  people  whose  names  have  never 
been  heard  and  will  never  be  recorded,  and  there  is  but  one 
prayer  in  all  of  these  letters:  "Mr.  President,  do  not  allow 
anybody  to  persuade  you  that  the  people  of  this  country 
want  war  with  anybody." 

I  got  off  a  train  yesterday,  and  as  I  was  bidding  good- 
by  to  the  engineer  he  said,  in  an  undertone,  "Mr.  President, 
keep  out  of  Mexico."  And  if  one  man  has  said  that  to  me 
a  thousand  have  said  it  to  me  as  I  have  moved  about  the 
country. 

If  I  have  opportunity  to  engage  them  further  in  conver 
sation,  they  say,  "Of  course,  we  know  that  you  can  not 
govern  the  circumstances  of  the  case  altogether,  and  it  may 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

be  necessary,  but  for  God's  sake  do  not  do  it  unless  it  is 
necessary." 

I  am  for  the  time  being  the  spokesman  of  such  people, 
gentlemen.  I  have  not  read  history  without  observing  that 
the  greatest  forces  in  the  world  and  the  only  permanent 
forces  are  the  moral  forces. 

We  have  the  evidence  of  a  very  competent  witness,  name 
ly,  the  first  Napoleon,  who  said  that  as  he  looked  back  in  the 
last  days  of  his  life  upon  so  much  as  he  knew  of  human 
history  he  had  to  record  the  judgment  that  force  had  never 
accomplished  anything  that  was  permanent. 

Force  will  not  accomplish  anything  that  is  permanent, 
I  venture  to  say,  in  the  great  struggle  which  is  now  going 
on  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea.  The  permanent  things 
will  be  accomplished  afterwards,  when  the  opinion  of  man 
kind  is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  issues,  and  the  only  thing 
that  will  hold  the  world  steady  is  this  same  silent,  insistent, 
all-powerful  opinion  of  mankind. 

Force  can  sometimes  hold  things  steady  until  opinion 
has  time  to  form,  but  no  force  that  was  ever  exerted,  except 
in  response  to  that  opinion,  was  ever  a  conquering  and  pre 
dominant  force. 

I  think  the  sentence  in  American  history  that  I  myself  am 
proudest  of  is  that  in  the  introductory  sentences  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  where  the  writers  say  that  a 
due  respect  for  the  opinion  of  mankind  demands  that  they 
state  the  reasons  for  what  they  are  about  to  do. 

I  venture  to  say  that  a  decent  respect  for  the  opinion 
of  mankind  demanded  that  those  who  started  the  present 
European  war  should  have  stated  their  reasons;  but  they 
did  not  pay  any  heed  to  the  opinion  of  mankind,  and  the 
reckoning  will  come  when  the  settlement  comes. 

So,  gentlemen,  I  am  willing,  no  matter  what  my  personal 
fortunes  may  be,  to  play  for  the  verdict  of  mankind.  Per 
sonally,  it  will  be  a  matter  of  Indifference  to  me  what  the 
verdict  on  the  7th  of  November  is,  provided  I  feel  any  de- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

g-ree  of  confidence  that  when  a  later  jury  sits  I  shall  get 
their  judgment  in  my  favor.  Not  in  my  favor  personally — • 
what  difference  does  that  make? — but  in  my  favor  as  an 
honest  and  conscientious  spokesman  of  a  great  nation. 


WILSON'S    ADDRESSES    AT    THE    SALESMANSHIP    CONGRESS, 
DETROIT,  JULY  10,  1916 

[Continuing  his  plea,  made  in  earlier  addresses,  for  ex 
pansion  of  American  foreign  trade,  and  commending  recent 
legislation  enacted  by  Congress.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen: 

It  is  with  a  great  deal  of  gratification  that  I  find  myself 
facing  so  interesting  and  important  a  company  as  this. 
You  will  readily  understand  that  I  have  not  come  here  to 
make  an  elaborate  address,  but  I  have  come  here  to  express 
my  interest  in  the  objects  of  this  great  association,  and  to 
congratulate  you  on  the  opportunities  which  are  immediately 
ahead  of  you  in  handling  the  business  of  this  country. 

These  are  days  of  incalculable  change,  my  fellow  citizens. 
It  is  impossible  for  anybody  to  predict  anything  that  is  cer 
tain,  in  detail,  with  regard  to  the  future  either  of  this  coun 
try  or  of  the  world  in  the  large  movements  of  business  ;  but 
one  thing  is  perfectly  clear,  and  that  is  that  the  United 
States  will  play  a  new  part,  and  that  it  will  be  a  part  of 
unprecedented  opportunity  and  of  greatly  increased  respon 
sibility. 

The  United  States  has  had  a  very  singular  history  in  re 
spect  of  its  business  relationships  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 
I  have  always  believed,  and  I  think  you  have  always  be 
lieved,  that  there  is  more  business  genius  in  the  United 
States  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world;  and  yet  America^ 
been  afraid  of  touching;  too  intimately  £he 


great  processes  of  international  exchange.     America,  of  all 

279 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

countries  in  the  world,  has  been  timid;  has  not  until  re 
cently,  has  not  until  within  the  last  two  or  three  years,  pro 
vided  itself  with  the  fundamental  instrumentalities  for  play 
ing  a  large  part  in  the  trade  of  the  world.  America,  which 
ought  to  have  had  the  broadest  vision  of  any  nation,  has 
raised  up  an  extraordinary  number  of  provincial  thinkers, 
men  who  thought  provincially  about  business,  men  who 
thought  that  the  United  States  was  not  ready  to  take  her 
competitive  part  in  the  struggle  for  the  peaceful  conquest 
of  the  world.  For  anybody  who  reflects  philosophically 
upon  the  history  of  this  country,  that  is  the  most  amazing 
fact  about  it. 

But  the  time  for  provincial  thinkers  has  gone  by.  We 
must  play  a  great  part  in  the  world  whether  we  choose  it 
or  not  Do  you  know  the  significance  of  this  single  fact, 
that  within  the  last  year  or  two  we  have,  speaking  in  large 
terms,  ceased  to  be  a  debtor  nation  and  become  a  creditor  • 
nation?  We  have  more  of  the  surplus  gold  of  the  world 
than  we  ever  had  before,  and  our  business  hereafter  is  to 
be  to  lend  and  to  help  and  to  promote  the  great  peaceful 
enterprises  of  the  world.  \We  have  got  to  finance  the  world 
in  some  important  degree,  and  those  who  finance  the  world 
must  understand  it  and  rule  it  with  their  spirits  and  with 
their  minds.  ^  We  can  not  cabin  and  confine  ourselves  any 
longer,  and  so  I  said  that  I  came  here  to  congratulate  you 
upon  the  great  role  that  lies  ahead  of  you  to  play.  This  is 
a  salesmanship  congress,  and  hereafter  salesmanship  will 
have  to  be  closely  related  in  its  outlook  and  scope  to  states 
manship,  to  international  statesmanship.  It  will  have  to  be 
touched  with  an  intimate  comprehension  of  the  conditions 
of  business  and  enterprise  throughout  the  round  globe,  be 
cause  America  will  have  to  place  her  goods  by  running  her 
intelligence  ahead  of  her  goods.  No  amount  of  mere  push, 
no  amount  of  mere  bustling,  or,  to  speak  in  the  western 
language,  no  amount  of  mere  rustling,  no  amount  of  mere 
active  enterprise,  will  suffice. 

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There  have  been  two  ways  of  doing  business  in  the  world 
outside  of  the  lands  in  which  the  great  manufactures  have 
been  made.  One  has  been  to  try  to  force  the  tastes  of  the 
manufacturing  country  on  the  country  in  which  the  markets 
were  being  sought,  and  the  other  way  has  been  to  study  the 
tastes  and  needs  of  the  countries  where  the  markets  were 
being  sought  and  suit  your  goods  to  those  tastes  and  needs ; 
and  the  latter  method  has  beaten  the  former  method.  If 
you  are  going  to  sell  carpets,  for  example,  in  India,  you 
have  got  to  have  as  good  taste  as  the  Indians  in  the  patterns 
of  the  carpets,  and  that  is  going  some.  If  you  are  going 
to  sell  things  in  tropical  countries,  they  must,  rather  ob 
viously,  be  different  from  those  which  you  sell  in  cold  and 
arctic  countries.  You  cannot  assume  that  the  rest  of  the 
world  is  going  to  wear  or  use  or  manufacture  what  you 
wear  and  use  and  manufacture.  Your  raw  materials  must 
be  the  raw  materials  that  they  need,  not  the  raw  materials 
that  you  need.  Your  manufactured  goods  must  be  the 
manufactured  goods  which  they  desire,  not  those  which 
other  markets  have  desired.  So  your  business  will  keep 
pace  with  your  knowledge,  not  of  yourself  and  of  your 
manufacturing  processes,  but  of  them  and  of  their  commer 
cial  needs.  That  is  statesmanship,  because  that  is  relating 
your  international  activities  to  the  conditions  which  exist 
in  other  countries. 

If  we  can  once  get  what  some  gentlemen  are  so  loath  to 
give  us,  a  merchant  marine !  The  trouble  with  some  men 
is  that  they  are  slow  in  their  minds.  They  do  not  see ;  they 
do  not  know  the  need,  and  they  will  not  allow  you  to  point 
it  out  to  them.  If  we  can  once  get  in  a  position  to  deliver 
our  own  goods,  then  the  goods  that  we  have  to  deliver  will 
be  adjusted  to  the  desires  of  those  to  whom  we  deliver  them, 
and  all  the  world  will  welcome  America  in  the  great  field 
of  commerce  and  manufacture. 

I  was  trying  to  expound  in  another  place  the  other  day 
the  long  way  and  the  short  way  to  get  together.  The  long 

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way  is  to  fight.  I  hear  some  gentlemen  say  that  they  want 
to  help  Mexico,  and  the  way  they  propose  to  help  her  is  to 
overwhelm  her  with  force.  That  is  the  long  way  to  help 
Mexico  as  well  as  the  wrong  way.  After  the  fighting  you 
have  a  nation  full  of  justified  suspicion  and  animated  by 
well-founded  hostility  and  hatred,  and  then  will  you  help 
them?  Then  will  you  establish  cordial  business  relation 
ships  with  them?  Then  will  you  go  in  as  neighbors  and 
enjoy  their  confidence?  On  the  contrary,  you  will  have 
shut  every  door  as  if  it  were  of  steel  against  you.  What 
makes  Mexico  suspicious  of  us  is  that  she  does  not  believe 
as  yet  that  we  want  to  serve  her.  She  believes  that  we  want 
to  possess  her,  and  she  has  justification  for  the  belief  in 
the  way  in  which  some  of  our  fellow-citizens  have  tried  to 
exploit  her  privileges  and  possessions.  For  my  part,  I  will 
not  serve  the  ambitions  of  these  gentlemen,  but  I  will  try 
to  serve  all  America,  so  far  as  intercourse  with  Mexico  ia 
concerned,  by  trying  to  serve  Mexico  herself.  There  are 
some  things  that  are  not  debatable.  Of  course,  we  have 
to  defend  our  border.  That  goes  without  saying.  Of  course, 
we  must  make  good  our  own  sovereignty,  but  we  must  re 
spect  the  sovereignty  of  Mexico.  I  am  one  of  those — I  have 
sometimes  suspected  that  there  were  not  many  of  them — 
who  believe,  absolutely  believe,  the  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights, 
which  was  the  model  of  the  old  bill  of  rights,  which  says 
that  a  people  has  a  right  to  do  anything  they  please  with 
their  own  country  and  their  own  government.  I  am  old- 
fashioned  enough  to  believe  that,  and  I  am  going  to  stand 
by  that  belief.  (That  is  for  the  benefit  of  those  gentlemen 
who  wish  to  butt  in.) 

Now,  I  use  that  as  an  illustration,  my  fellow  citizens. 
What  do  we  all  most  desire  when  the  present  tragical  con 
fusion  of  the  world's  affairs  is  over?  We  desire  perma 
nent  peace,  do  we  not  ?  Permanent  peace  can  grow  in  only 
one  soil.  That  is  the  soil  of  actual  good  will,  and  good  will 
can  not  exist  without  mutual  comprehension. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

This,  then,  my  friends,  is  the  siniple  message  that  I  bring 
you.  Lift  your  eyes  to  the  horizons  of  business;  do  not 
look  too  close  at  the  little  processes  with  which  you  are 
concerned,  but  let  your  thoughts  and  your  imaginations  run 
abroad  throughout  the  whole  world,  and  with  the  inspiration 
of  the  thought  that  you  are  Americans  and  are  meant  to 
carry  liberty  and  justice  and  the  principles  of  humanity 
wherever  you  go,  go  out  and  sell  goods  that  will  make  the 
world  more  comfortable  and  more  happy,  and  convert  them 
to  the  principles  of  America. 

[A  later  address  the  same  day,  at  luncheon] 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  glad  to  find  myself  in  Detroit  and  face  to  face  with 
the  men  who  have  played  the  principal  part  in  giving  it 
distinction  throughout  the  country  and  throughout  the  world. 
Looking  about  among  you,  I  see  that  it  is  true  in  this  mat 
ter,  as  in  others,  that  the  only  men  fit  for  such  a  job  are 
young  men  and  men  who  never  grow  old.  There  is  the 
liveliness  of  youth  in  the  eyes  even  of  those  of  you  who  have 
shared  with  me  the  painful  parting  with  the  hirsute  appen 
dage.  ...  I  have  always  been  inclined  to  believe  that  the 
business  of  the  world  was  best  understood  by  those  men 
who  were  in  the  struggle  for  maintenance  not  only,  but  for 
success.  The  man  who  knows  the  strength  of  the  tide  is  the 
man  who  is  swimming  against  it,  not  the  man  who  is  floating 
with  it.  The  man  who  is  immersed  in  the  beginnings  of 
business,  who  is  trying  to  get  his  foothold,  who  is  trying  to 
get  other  men  to  believe  in  him  and  lend  him  money  and 
trust  him  to  make  profitable  use  of  that  money,  is  the  man 
who  knows  what  the  business  conditions  in  the  United  States 
are,  and  I  would  rather  take  his  counsel  as  to  what  ought 
to  be  done  for  business  than  the  counsel  of  any  established 
captain  of  industry.  The  captain  of  industry  is  looking 
backward  and  the  other  man  is  looking  forward.  The  con- 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

ditions  of  business  change  with  every  generation;  change 
with  every  decade;  are  now  changing  at  an  almost  breath 
less  pace,  and  the  men  who  have  made  good  are  not  feeling 
the  tides  as  the  other  men  are  feeling  them.  .  .  . 

So  I  invite  your  thoughts,  in  what  I  sincerely  believe  to 
be  an  entirely  nonpartisan  spirit,  to  the  democracy  of  busi 
ness.  An  act  was  recently  passed  in  Congress  that  some 
of  the  most  intelligent  business  men  of  this  country  earn 
estly  opposed — men  whom  I  knew,  men  whose  character  I 
trusted,  men  whose  integrity  I  absolutely  believed  in.  I 
refer  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Act,  by  which  we  intended  to 
take,  and  succeeded  in  taking  credit  out  of  the  control  of  a 
small  number  of  men  and  making  it  available  to  everybody 
who  had  real  commercial  assets,  and  the  very  men  who  op 
posed  that  act,  and  opposed  it  conscientiously,  now  admit 
that  it  saved  the  country  from  a  ruinous  panic  when  the 
stress  of  war  came  on,  and  that  it  is  the  salvation  of  every 
average  business  man  who  is  in  the  midst  of  the  tides  that 
I  have  been  trying  to  describe.  .  .  . 

The  suspicion  is  beginning  to  dawn  in  many  quarters  that 
the  average  man  knows  the  business  necessities  of  the  coun 
try  just  as  well  as  the  extraordinary  man  does.  I  believe  in 
the  ordinary  man.  If  I  did  not  believe  in  the  ordinary  man 
I  would  move  out  of  a  democracy  and,  if  I  found  an  en 
durable  monarchy,  I  would  live  in  it.  The  very  conception 
of  America  is  based  upon  the  validity  of  the  judgments  of 
the  average  man,  and  I  call  you  to  witness  that  there  have 
not  been  many  catastrophes  in  American  history.  I  call 
you  to  witness  that  the  average  judgments  of  the  voters  of 
the  United  States  have  been  sound  judgments,  I  call  you 
to  witness  that  this  great  impulse  of  the  common  opinion 
has  been  a  lifting  impulse,  and  not  a  depressing  impulse. 
What  is  the  object  of  associations  like  that  which  is  gath 
ered  here  to-day,  this  Salesmanship  Congress  ?  The  moral 
of  it  is  that  a  few  men  can  not  determine  the  interests  of 
a  large  body  of  men,  and  that  the  only  way  to  determine 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

them  and  advance  them  is  to  have  a  representative  assem 
bly  chosen  by  themselves  get  together  and  take  common 
counsel  regarding  them.  .  .  . 

I  never  went  into  a  committee  of  any  kind  upon  any  im 
portant  public  matter,  or  private  matter  so  far  as  that  is 
concerned,  that  I  did  not  come  out  with  an  altered  judg 
ment  and  knowing  much  more  about  the  matter  than  when 
I  went  in;  and  not  only  knowing  much  more,  but  knowing 
that  the  common  judgment  arrived  at  was  better  than  I 
could  have  suggested  when  I  went  in.  That  is  the  universal 
experience  of  candid  men.  If  it  were  not  so,  there  would 
be  no  object  in  congresses  like  this.  Yet  whenever  we  at 
tempt  legislation,  we  find  ourselves  in  this  case:  We  are 
not  in  the  presence  of  the  many  who  can  counsel  wisely, 
but  we  are  in  the  presence  of  the  few  who  counsel  too  nar 
rowly,  and  the  means  by  which  we  have  been  trying  to  break 
away  from  that  is  not  by  excluding  these  gentlemen  who 
constituted  the  narrow  circles  of  advice,  but  by  associating 
them  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  their  fellow  citizens. 

I  have  had  some  say  that  I  was  not  accessible  to  them, 
and  when  I  inquired  into  it  I  found  they  meant  that  I  did 
not  personally  invite  them.  They  did  not  know  how  to 
come  without  being  invited,  and  they  did  not  care  to  come 
if  they  came  upon  the  same  terms  with  everybody  else, 
knowing  that  everybody  else  was  welcome  whom  I  had  the 
time  to  confer  with. 

Am  I  telling  you  things  unobserved  by  you?  Do  you  not 
know  that  these  things  are  true?  And  do  you  not  believe 
with  me  that  the  affairs  of  the  Nation  can  be  better  con 
ducted  upon  the  basis  of  general  counsel  than  upon  the 
basis  of  special  counsel  ?  Men  are  colored  and  governed  by 
their  occupations  and  their  surroundings  and  their  habits. 
If  I  wanted  to  change  the  law  radically,  I  would  not  consult 
a  lawyer.  If  I  wanted  to  change  business  methods  radi 
cally,  I  would  not  consult  a  man  who  had  made  a  conspicu 
ous  success  by  using  the  present  methods  that  I  wanted  to 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Paper^ 

change.  Not  because  I  would  distrust  these  men,  but  be 
cause  I  would  know  that  they  would  not  change  their  think 
ing  over  night,  that  they  would  have  to  go  through  a  long 
process  of  reacquaintance  with  the  circumstances  of  the 
time,  the  new  circumstances  of  the  time,  before  they  could 
be  converted  to  my  point  of  view.  You  get  a  good  deal 
more  light  on  the  street  than  you  do  in  the  closet.  You  get 
a  good  deal  more  light  by  keeping  your  ears  open  among 
the  rank  and  file  of  your  fellow  citizens  than  you  do  in 
any  private  conference  whatever.  I  would  rather  hear  what 
the  men  are  talking  about  on  the  trains  and  in  the  shops 
and  by  the  fireside  than  hear  anything  else,  because  I  want 
guidance  and  I  know  I  could  get  it  there,  and  what  I  am 
constantly  asking  is  that  men  should  bring  me  that  coun 
sel,  because  I  am  not  privileged  to  determine  things  inde 
pendently  of  this  counsel.  I  am  your  servant,  not  your 
ruler. 

One  thing  that  we  are  now  trying  to  convert  the  small 
circles  to  that  the  big  circles  are  already  converted  to  is 
that  this  country  needs  a  merchant  marine  and  ought  to 
get  one.  I  have  found  that  I  had  a  great  deal  more  resist 
ance  when  I  tried  to  help  business  than  when  I  tried  to  in 
terfere  with  it.  I  have  had  a  great  deal  more  resistance 
of  counsel,  of  special  counsel,  when  I  tried  to  alter  the 
things  that  are  established  than  when  I  tried  to  do  any 
thing  else.  We  call  ourselves  a  liberal  nation,  whereas,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  we  are  one  of  the  most  conservative  na 
tions  in  the  world.  If  you  want  to  make  enemies,  try  to 
change  something.  You  know  why  it  is.  To  do  things  to 
day  exactly  the  way  you  did  them  yesterday  saves  think 
ing.  It  does  not  cost  you  anything.  You  have  acquired  the 
habit;  you  know  the  routine;  you  do  not  have  to  plan  any 
thing,  and  it  frightens  you  with  a  hint  of  exertion  to  learn 
that  you  will  have  to  do  it  a  different  way  to-morrow.  Un 
til  I  became  a  college  teacher,  I  used  to  think  that  the  young 
men  were  radical,  but  college  boys  are  the  greatest  conserva- 

886 


Woodrow    Wilson 

tives  I  ever  tackled  in  my  life,  largely  because  they  have 
associated  too  much  with  their  fathers.  What  you  have  to 
do  with  them  is  to  take  them  up  upon  some  visionary  height 
and  show  them  the  map  of  the  world  as  it  is.  Do  not  let 
them  see  their  father's  factory.  Do  not  let  them  see  their 
father's  countinghouse.  Let  them  see  the  great  valleys  teem 
ing  with  laborious  people.  Let  them  see  the  great  struggle 
of  men  in  realms  they  never  dreamed  of.  Let  them  see  the 
great  emotional  power  that  is  in  the  world,  the  great  am 
bitions,  the  great  hopes,  the  great  fears.  Give  them  some 
picture  of  mankind,  and  then  their  father's  business  and 
every  other  man's  business  will  begin  to  fall  into  place. 
They  will  see  that  it  is  an  item  and  not  the  whole  thing; 
and  they  will  sometimes  see  that  the  item  is  not  properly 
related  to  the  whole,  and  what  they  will  get  interested  in 
will  be  to  relate  the  item  to  the  whole,  so  that  it  will  form 
part  of  the  force,  and  not  part  of  the  impediment. 

This  country,  above  every  country  in  the  world,  gentle 
men,  is  meant  to  lift;  it  is  meant  to  add  to  the  forces  that 
improve.  It  is  meant  to  add  to  everything  that  betters  the 
world,  that  gives  it  better  thinking,  more  honest  endeavor,  a 
closer  grapple  of  man  with  man,  so  that  we  will  all  be 
pulling  together  like  one  irresistible  team  in  a  single  harn 
ess.  That  is  the  reason  why  it  seemed  wise  to  substitute 
for  the  harsh  processes  of  the  law,  which  merely  lays  its 
hand  on  your  shoulder  after  you  have  sinned  and  threatens 
you  with  punishment,  some  of  the  milder  and  more  helpful 
processes  of  counsel.  That  is  the  reason  the  Federal  Trade 
Commission  was  established — so  that  men  would  have  some 
place  where  they  could  take  counsel  as  to  what  the  law  was 
and  what  the  law  permitted;  and  also  take  counsel  as  to 
whether  the  law  itself  was  right  and  advice  had  not  better 
be  taken  as  to  its  alteration.  The  processes  of  counsel  are 
only  the  processes  of  accommodation,  not  the  processes  of 
punishment.  Punishment  retards  but  it  does  not  lift  up. 
Punishment  impedes  but  it  does  not  improve.  And  we  ought 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to  substitute  for  the  harsh  processes  of  the  law,  wherever 
we  can,  the  milder  and  gentler  and  more  helpful  processes 
of  counsel. 

It  has  been  a  very  great  grief  to  some  of  us,  year  after 
year,  year  after  year,  to  see  a  fundamental  thing  like  the 
fiscal  policy  of  the  Government  with  regard  to  duties  on 
imports  made  a  football  of  politics.  Why,  gentlemen,  party 
politics  ought  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of 
what  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  business  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  is  the  reason  we  ought  to  have  a  tariff  commission, 
and,  I  may  add,  are  going  to  have  a  tariff  commission.  But, 
then,  gentlemen,  the  trouble  will  be  upon  me.  The  provis 
ion  as  it  stands  makes  it  obligatory  upon  me  not  to  choose 
more  than  half  the  commission  from  any  one  political  party. 
The  bill  does  not  undertake  to  say  how  many  political  par 
ties  there  are.  That  just  now  is  a  delicate  question.  But 
I  am  forbidden  to  take  more  than  two  of  the  same  variety, 
and  yet  the  trouble  about  that  is  I  would  like  to  find  men 
for  that  commission  who  were  of  no  one  of  the  varieties.  I 
would  like  to  find  men  who  would  find  out  the  circumstances 
of  American  business,  particularly  as  it  changes  and  is  go 
ing  to  change  with  perplexing  rapidity  in  the  years  imme 
diately  ahead  of  us,  without  any  regard  whatever  to  the 
interest  of  any  party  whatever,  so  that  we  should  be  able 
to  legislate  upon  the  facts  and  upon  the  large  economic  as 
pects  of  those  facts  without  stopping  to  think  which  party 
it  was  going  to  hurt  and  which  party  it  was  going  to  bene 
fit.  But  almost  everybody  in  this  country  wears  a  label  of 
some  kind,  and  under  the  law  I  suppose  I  will  have  to 
turn  them  around  and  see  how  they  are  labeled,  how  they 
are  branded;  and  that  is  going  to  be  a  very  great  blow  to 
my  spirit  and  a  very  great  test  of  my  judgment.  I  hope, 
after  the  results  are  achieved,  ^ou  will  judge  me  leniently, 
because  my  desire  would  be  not  to  have  a  bipartisan  but  an 
absolutely  nonpartisan  commission  of  men  who  really  ap 
plied  the  tests  of  scientific  analysis  of  the  facts  and  no 


Woodrow    Wilson 

other  tests  whatever  to  the  conclusions  that  they  arrived 
at.  ... 

I  believe  that  Americans  can  manufacture  goods  better 
than  anybody  else;  that  they  can  sell  goods  as  honestly  as 
anybody  else;  that  they  can  find  out  the  conditions  and 
meet  the  conditions  of  foreign  business  better  than  anybody 
else,  and  I  want  to  see  them  given  a  chance  right  away,  and 
they  will  be  whether  I  want  them  to  be  or  not.  We  have 
been  trying  to  get  ready  for  it.  The  national  banks  of  the 
United  States,  until  the  recent  Currency  Act,  were  held  back 
by  the  very  terms  of  the  law  under  which  they  operated 
from  some  of  the  most  important  international  transactions. 
To  my  mind  that  is  one  of  the  most  amazing  facts  of  our 
commercial  history.  The  Congress  of  the  United  States 
was  not  willing  that  the  national  banks  should  have  a  latch 
key  and  go  away  from  home.  They  were  afraid  they  would 
not  know  how  to  get  back  under  cover,  and  banks  from 
other  countries  had  to  establish  branches  where  American 
bankers  were  doing  business,  to  take  care  of  some  of  the 
most  important  processes  of  international  exchange.  That 
Is  nothing  less  than  amazing,  but  it  is  not  necessary  any 
longer.  It  never  was  necessary;  it  was  only  thought  to 
be  necessary  by  some  eminently  provincial  statesmen.  We 
are  done  with  provincialism  in  the  statesmanship  of  the 
United  States,  and  we  have  got  to  have  a  view  now  and  a 
horizon  as  wide  as  the  world  itself.  And  when  I  look 
around  upon  an  alert  company  like  this,  it  seems  to  me 
in  my  imagination  they  are  almost  straining  at  the  leash. 
They  are  waiting  to  be  let  loose  upon  this  great  race  that  is 
now  going  to  challenge  our  abilities.  For  my  part,  I  shall 
look  forward  to  the  result  with  absolute  and  serene  confi 
dence,  because  the  spirit  of  the  United  States  is  an  inter 
national  spirit,  if  we  conceive  it  right.  This  is  not  the 
home  of  any  particular  race  of  men.  This  is  not  the  home 
of  any  particular  set  of  political  traditions.  This  is  a 
home  the  doors  of  which  have  been  opened  from  the  first 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers     \ 

to  mankind,  to  everybody  who  loved  liberty,  to  everybody 
whose  ideal  was  equality  of  opportunity,  to  everybody  whose 
heart  was  moved  by  the  fundamental  instincts  and  sympa 
thies  of  humanity.  That  is  America,  and  now  it  is  as  if 
the  nations  of  the  world,  sampled  and  united  here,  were  in 
their  new  union  and  new  common  understanding  turning 
about  to  serve  the  world  with  all  the  honest  processes  of 
business  and  of  enterprise.  I  am  happy  that  I  should  be 
witnessing  the  dawn  of  the  day  when  America  is  indeed  to 
come  into  her  own. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  ON  CITIZENSHIP 
(At  a  Citizenship  Convention,  Washington,  July  13,  1916) 

[For  a  long  period  before  the  war  in  Europe,  the  tide  of  emigra 
tion  toward  the  United  States  had  grown  ever  stronger.  The 
census  of  1910  showed  6,646,000  foreign-born  adult  male  residents. 
As  the  war  progressed  there  was  much  talk  about  some  of  these 
so-called  "hyphenated"  Americans ;  and  many  thousands  had  awak 
ened  in  them  a  desire  to  complete  the  formalities  of  obtaining 
American  citizenship.  This  is  the  third  of  President  Wilson's 
addresses  on  citizenship  and  "America  First" — see  also  pages  108 
and  114.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  have  come  here  for  the  simple  purpose  of  expressing 
my  very  deep  interest  in  what  these  conferences  are  in 
tended  to  attain.  It  is  not  fair  to  the  great  multitudes  of 
hopeful  men  and  women  who  press  into  this  country  from 
other  countries  that  we  should  leave  them  without  that 
friendly  and  intimate  instruction  which  will  enable  them 
very  soon  after  they  come  to  find  out  what  America  is  like 
at  heart  and  what  America  is  intended  for  among  the  na 
tions  of  the  world. 

I  believe  that  the  chief  school  that  these  people  must 
attend  after  they  get  here  is  the  school  which  all  of  us 

890 


Woodrow    Wilson 

attend,  which  is  furnished  by  the  life  of  the  communities 
in  which  we  live  and  the  nation  to  which  we  belong.  It 
has  been  a  very  touching  thought  to  me  sometimes  to  think 
of  the  hopes  which  have  drawn  these  people  to  America. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  many  a  simple  soul  has  been  thrilled 
by  that  great  statue  standing  in  the  harbor  of  New  York 
and  seeming  to  lift  the  light  of  liberty  for  the  guidance  of 
the  feet  of  men ;  and  I  can  imagine  that  they  have  expected 
here  something  ideal  in  the  treatment  that  they  will  re 
ceive,  something  ideal  in  the  laws  which  they  would  have 
to  live  under,  and  it  has  caused  me  many  a  time  to  turn 
upon  myself  the  eye  of  examination  to  see  whether  there 
burned  in  me  the  true  light  of  the  American  spirit  which 
they  expected  to  find  here.  It  is  easy,  my  fellow-citizens, 
to  communicate  physical  lessons,  but  it  is  very  difficult  to 
communicate  spiritual  lessons.  America  was  intended  to 
be  a  spirit  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  and  it  is  the 
purpose  of  conferences  like  this  to  find  out  the  best  way 
to  introduce  the  newcomers  to  this  spirit,  and  by  that  very 
interest  in  them  to  enhance  and  purify  in  ourselves  the 
thing  that  ought  to  make  America  great  and  not  only  ought 
to  make  her  great,  but  ought  to  make  her  exhibit  a  spirit 
unlike  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  .  .  . 

So  my  interest  in  this  movement  is  as  much  an  interest 
in  ourselves  as  in  those  whom  we  are  trying  to  Americanize, 
because  if  we  are  genuine  Americans  they  cannot  avoid  the 
infection;  whereas,  if  we  are  not  genuine  Americans,  there 
will  be  nothing  to  infect  them  with,  and  no  amount  of  teach 
ing,  no  amount  of  exposition  of  the  Constitution — which  I 
find  very  few  persons  understand — no  amount  of  dwelling 
upon  the  idea  of  liberty  and  of  justice  will  accomplish  the 
object  we  have  in  view,  unless  we  ourselves  illustrate  the 
idea  of  justice  and  of  liberty.  My  interest  in  this  move 
ment  is,  therefore,  a  two-fold  interest.  I  believe  it  will 
assist  us  to  become  self-conscious  in  respect  of  the  funda 
mental  ideas  of  American  life. 


Presidential  Messages ,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

When  you  ask  a  man  to  be  loyal  to  a  government,  if  he 
comes  from  some  foreign  countries,  his  idea  is  that  he  is 
expected  to  be  loyal  to  a  certain  set  of  persons  like  a  ruler 
or  a  body  set  in  authority  over  him,  but  that  is  not  the 
American  idea.  Our  idea  is  that  he  is  to  be  loyal  to  certain 
objects  in  life,  and  that  the  only  reason  he  has  a  Presi 
dent  and  a  Congress  and  a  Governor  and  a  State  Legisla 
ture  and  courts  is  that  the  community  shall  have  instru 
mentalities  by  which  to  promote  those  objects.  It  is  a 
cooperative  organization  expressing  itself  in  this  Consti 
tution,  expressing  itself  in  these  laws,  intending  to  ex 
press  itself  in  the  exposition  of  those  laws  by  the  courts; 
and  the  idea  of  America  is  not  so  much  that  men  are  to  be 
restrained  and  punished  by  the  law  as  instructed  and 
guided  by  the  law.  .  .  .  The  object  of  the  law  is  that 
there,  written  upon  these  pages,  the  citizen  should  read 
the  record  of  the  experience  of  this  state  and  nation;  what 
they  have  concluded  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  do  because 
of  the  life  they  have  lived  and  the  things  that  they  have 
discovered  to  be  elements  in  that  life. 

So  that  we  ought  to  be  careful  to  maintain  a  govern 
ment  at  which  the  immigrant  can  look  with  the  closest 
scrutiny  and  to  which  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  address 
this  question:  "You  declare  this  to  be  a  land  of  liberty 
and  of  equality  and  of  justice;  have  you  made  it  so  by  your 
law?"  We  ought  to  be  able  in  our  schools,  in  our  night 
schools  and  in  every  other  method  of  instructing  these 
people,  to  show  them  that  that  has  been  our  endeavor.  We 
cannot  conceal  from  them  long  the  fact  that  we  are  just  as 
human  as  any  other  nation,  that  we  are  just  as  selfish,  that 
there  are  just  as  many  mean  people  amongst  us  as  any 
where  else,  that  there  are  just  as  many  people  here  who 
want  to  take  advantage  of  other  people  as  you  can  find 
in  other  countries,  just  as  many  cruel  people,  just  as  many 
people  heartless  when  it  comes  to  maintaining  and  promot 
ing  their  own  interest;  but  you  can  show  that  our  object  is 


Woodrow    Wilson 

to  get  these  people  in  harmless  and  see  to  it  that  they 
do  not  do  any  damage  and  are  not  allowed  to  indulge 
the  passions  which  would  bring  injustice  and  calamity 
at  last  upon  a  nation  whose  object  is  spiritual  and  not 
material. 

America  has  built  up  a  great  body  of  wealth.  America 
has  become,  from  the  physical  point  of  view,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  nations  in  the  world,  a  nation  which  if  it 
took  the  pains  to  do  so,  could  build  that  power  up  into  one 
of  the  most  formidable  instruments  in  the  world,  one  of  the 
most  formidable  instruments  of  force,  but  which  has  no 
other  idea  than  to  use  its  force  for  ideal  objects  and  not  for 
self-aggrandizement. 

We  have  been  disturbed  recently,  my  fellow-citizens,  by 
certain  symptoms  which  have  showed  themselves  in  our 
body  politic.  Certain  men — I  have  never  believed  a  great 
number — born  in  other  lands,  have  in  recent  months  thought 
more  of  those  lands  than  they  have  of  the  honor  and  in 
terest  of  the  government  under  which  they  are  now  living. 
They  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  draw  apart  in  spirit  and 
in  organization  from  the  rest  of  us  to  accomplish  some 
special  object  of  their  own.  I  am  not  here  going  to  utter 
any  criticism  of  these  people,  but  I  want  to  say  this,  that 
such  a  thing  as  that  is  absolutely  incompatible  with  the 
fundamental  idea  of  loyalty,  and  that  loyalty  is  not  a  self- 
pleasing  virtue.  I  am  not  bound  to  be  loyal  to  the  United 
States  to  please  myself.  I  am  bound  to  be  loyal  to  the 
United  States  because  I  live  under  its  laws  and  am  its  citi 
zen,  and  whether  it  hurts  me  or  whether  it  benefits  me, 
I  am  obliged  to  be  loyal.  Loyalty  means  nothing  unless 
it  has  at  its  heart  the  absolute  principle  of  self-sacrifice. 
Loyalty  means  that  you  ought  to  be  ready  to  sacrifice  every 
interest  that  you  have,  and  your  life  itself,  if  your"  country 
calls  upon  you  to  do  so,  and  that  is  the  sort  of  loyalty  which 
ought  to  be  inculcated  into  these  newcomers,  that  they  are 
not  to  be  loyal  only  so  long  as  they  are  pleased,  but  that, 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State 

having  once  entered  into  this  sacred  relationship,  they  are 
bound  to  be  loyal  whether  they  are  pleased  or  not ;  and  that 
loyalty  which  is  merely  self -pleasing  is  only  self-indulgence 
and  selfishness.  No  man  has  ever  risen  to  the  real  stature 
of  spiritual  manhood  until  he  has  found  that  it  is  finer  to 
serve  somebody  else  than  it  is  to  serve  himself. 

These  are  the  conceptions  which  we  ought  to  teach  the 
newcomers  into  our  midst,  and  we  ought  to  realize  that  the 
life  of  every  one  of  us  is  part  of  the  schooling,  and  that  we 
cannot  preach  loyalty  unless  we  set  the  example,  that  we 
cannot  profess  things  with  any  influence  upon  others  unless 
we  practice  them  also.  This  process  of  Americanization 
is  going  to  be  a  process  of  self-examination,  a  process  of 
purification,  a  process  of  rededication  to  the  things  which 
America  represents  and  is  proud  to  represent.  And  it  takes 
a  great  deal  more  courage  and  steadfastness,  my  fellow- 
citizens,  to  represent  ideal  things  than  to  represent  any 
thing  else. 


WILSON'S  SPECIAL  ADDRESS  (MESSAGE)  ON  THE  THREATENED 
RAILROAD  STRIKE  AND  THE  EIGHT-HOUR  LAW 

(Delivered   before    Congress   in    Special    Session,   August 
29,   1916) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

I  have  come  to  you  to  seek  your  assistance  in  dealing 
with  a  very  grave  situation  which  has  arisen  out  of  the 
demand  of  the  employees  of  the  railroads  engaged  in  freight 
train  service  that  they  be  granted  an  eight-hour  working 
day,  safeguarded  by  payment  for  an  hour  and  a  half  of 
service  for  every  hour  of  work  beyond  the  eight. 

The  matter  has  been  agitated  for  more  than  *.  year.    The 


Woodrow    Wilson 

public  has  been  made  familiar  with  the  demands  of  the 
men  and  the  arguments  urged  in  favor  of  them,  and  even 
more  familiar  with  the  objections  of  the  railroads  and 
their  counter  demand  that  certain  privileges  now  enjoyed 
by  their  men  and  certain  bases  of  payment  worked  out 
through  many  years  of  contest  be  reconsidered,  especially 
in  their  relation  to  the  adoption  of  an  eight-hour  day. 
The  matter  came  some  three  weeks  ago  to  a  final  issue 
and  resulted  in  a  complete  deadlock  between  the  parties. 
The  means  provided  by  law  for  the  mediation  of  the  con 
troversy  failed  and  the  means  of  arbitration  for  which  the 
law  provides  were  rejected.  The  representatives  of  the 
railway  executives  proposed  that  the  demands  of  the  men 
be  submitted  in  their  entirety  to  arbitration,  along  with 
certain  questions  of  readjustment  as  to  pay  and  conditions 
of  employment  which  seemed  to  them  to  be  either  closely 
associated  with  the  demands  or  to  call  for  reconsideration 
on  their  own  merits;  the  men  absolutely  declined  arbitra 
tion,  especially  if  any  of  their  established  privileges  were 
by  that  means  to  be  drawn  again  in  question.  The  law 
in  the  matter  put  no  compulsion  upon  them.  The  four 
hundred  thousand  men  from  whom  the  demands  proceeded 
had  voted  to  strike  if  their  demands  were  refused;  the 
strike  was  imminent;  it  has  since  been  set  Stor  the  fourth  of 
September  next.  It  affects  the  men  who  man  the  freight 
trains  on  practically  every  railway  in  the  country.  The 
freight  service  throughout  the  United  States  must  stand  still 
until  their  places  are  filled,  if,  indeed,  it  should  prove  pos 
sible  to  fill  them  at  all.  Cities  will  be  cut  off  from  their 
food  supplies,  the  whole  commerce  of  the  nation  will  be 
paralyzed,  men  of  every  sort  and  occupation  will  be  thrown 
out  of  employment,  countless  thousands  will  in  all  likeli 
hood  be  brought,  it  may  be,  to  the  very  point  of  starvation, 
and  a  tragical  national  calamity  brought  on,  to  be  added 
to  the  other  distresses  of  the  time,  because  no  basis  of  ac 
commodation  or  settlement  has  been  found. 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Just  so  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  mediation  under 
the  existing  law  had  failed  and  that  arbitration  had  been 
rendered  impossible  by  the  attitude  of  the  men,  I  consid 
ered  it  my  duty  to  confer  with  the  representatives  of  both 
the  railways  and  the  brotherhoods,  and  myself  offer  media 
tion,  not  as  an  arbitrator,  but  merely  as  spokesman  of  the 
nation,  in  the  interest  of  justice,  indeed,  and  as  a  friend 
of  both  parties,  but  not  as  judge,  only  as  the  representative 
of  one  hundred  millions  of  men,  women,  and  children  who 
would  pay  the  price,  the  incalculable  price,  of  loss  and 
suffering  should  these  few  men  insist  upon  approaching 
and  concluding  the  matters  in  controversy  between  them 
merely  as  employers  and  employees,  rather  than  as  patriotic 
citizens  of  the  United  States  looking  before  and  after  and 
accepting  the  larger  responsibility  which  the  public  would 
put  upon  them. 

It  seemed  to  me,  in  considering  the  subject-matter  of  the 
controversy,  that  the  whole  spirit  of  the  time  and  the  pre 
ponderant  evidence  of  recent  economic  experience  spoke 
for  the  eight-hour  day.  It  has  been  adjudged  by  the 
thought  and  experience  of  recent  years  a  thing  upon  which 
society  is  justified  in  insisting  as  in  the  interest  of  health, 
efficiency,  contentment,  and  a  general  increase  of  economic 
vigor.  The  whole  presumption  of  modern  experience  would, 
it  seemed  to  me,  be  in  its  favor,  whether  there  was  arbitra 
tion  or  not,  and  the  debatable  points  to  settle  were  those 
which  arose  out  of  the  acceptance  of  the  eight-hour  day 
rather  than  those  which  affected  its  establishment.  I, 
therefore,  proposed  that  the  eight-hour  day  be  adopted  by 
the  railway  managements  and  put  into  practice  for  the 
present  as  a  substitute  for  the  existing  ten-hour  basis  of 
pay  and  service ;  that  I  should  appoint,  with  the  permission 
of  the  Congress,  a  small  commission  to  observe  the  results 
of  the  change,  carefully  studying  the  figures  of  the  altered 
operating  costs,  not  only,  but  also  the  conditions  of  labor 
under  which  the  men  worked  and  the  operation  of  their 

296 


Woodrow    Wilson 

existing  agreements  with  the  railroads,  with  instructions  to 
report  the  facts  as  they  found  them  to  the  Congress  at 
the  earliest  possible  day,  but  without  recommendation;  and 
that,  after  the  facts  had  been  thus  disclosed,  an  adjustment 
should  in  some  orderly  manner  be  sought  of  all  the  matters 
now  left  unadjusted  between  the  railroad  managers  and 
the  men. 

These  proposals  were  exactly  in  line,  it  is  interesting  to 
note,  with  the  position  taken  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  when  appealed  to  to  protect  certain  litigants 
from  the  financial  losses  which  they  confidently  expected 
if  they  should  submit  to  the  regulation  of  their  charges  and 
of  their  methods  of  service  by  public  legislation.  The  Court 
has  held  that  it  would  not  undertake  to  form  a  judgment 
upon  forecasts,  but  could  base  its  action  only  upon  actual 
experience;  that  it  must  be  supplied  with  facts,  not  with 
calculations  and  opinions,  however  scientifically  attempted. 
To  undertake  to  arbitrate  the  question  of  the  adoption  of 
an  eight-hour  day  in  the  light  of  results  merely  estimated 
and  predicted  would  be  to  undertake  an  enterprise  of  con 
jecture.  No  wise  man  could  undertake  it,  or,  if  he  did 
undertake  it,  could  feel  assured  of  his  conclusions. 

I  unhesitatingly  offered  the  friendly  services  of  the  ad 
ministration  to  the  railway  managers  to  see  to  it  that  j  ustice 
was  done  the  railroads  in  the  outcome.  I  felt  warranted 
in  assuring  them  that  no  obstacle  of  law  would  be  suffered 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  their  increasing  their  revenues  to 
meet  the  expenses  resulting  from  the  change  so  far  as  the 
development  of  their  business  and  of  their  administrative 
efficiency  did  not  prove  adequate  to  meet  them.  The  public 
and  the  representatives  of  the  public,  I  felt  justified  in 
assuring  them,  were  disposed  to  nothing  but  justice  in 
such  cases  and  were  willing  to  serve  those  who  served  them. 

The  representatives  of  the  brotherhoods  accepted  the 
plan;  but  the  representatives  of  the  railroads  declined  to 
accept  it.  In  the  face  of  what  I  cannot  but  regard  as  the 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

practical  certainty  that  they  will  be  ultimately  obliged  to 
accept  the  eight-hour  day  by  the  concerted  action  of  organ 
ized  labor,  backed  by  the  favorable  judgment  of  society, 
the  representatives  of  the  railway  management  have  felt 
justified  in  declining  a  peaceful  settlement  which  would 
engage  all  the  forces  of  justice,  public  and  private,  on 
their  side  to  take  care  of  the  event.  They  fear  the  hostile 
influence  of  shippers,  who  would  be  opposed  to  an  increase 
of  freight  rates  (for  which,  however,  of  course,  the  public 
itself  would  pay) ;  they  apparently  feel  no  confidence  that 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  could  withstand  the 
objections  that  would  be  made.  They  do  not  care  to  rely 
upon  the  friendly  assurances  of  the  Congress  or  the  Presi 
dent.  They  have  thought  it  best  that  they  should  be  forced 
to  yield,  if  they  must  yield,  not  by  counsel,  but  by  the 
suffering  of  the  country.  While  my  conferences  with  them 
were  in  progress,  and  when  to  all  outward  appearance  those 
conferences  had  come  to  a  standstill,  the  representatives 
of  the  brotherhoods  suddenly  acted  and  set  the  strike  for 
the  fourth  of  September. 

The  railway  managers  based  their  decision  to  reject  my 
counsel  in  this  matter  upon  their  conviction  that  they  must 
at  any  cost  to  themselves  or  to  the  country  stand  firm  for 
the  principle  of  arbitration  which  the  men  had  rejected. 
I  based  my  counsel  upon  the  indisputable  fact  that  there 
was  no  means  of  obtaining  arbitration.  The  law  supplied 
none;  earnest  efforts  at  mediation  had  failed  to  influence 
the  men  in  the  least.  To  stand  firm  for  the  principle  of 
arbitration  and  yet  not  get  arbitration  seemed  to  me  futile, 
and  something  more  than  futile,  because  it  involved  incal 
culable  distress  to  the  country  and  consequences  in  some 
respects  worse  than  those  of  war,  and  that  in  the  midst 
of  peace. 

I  yield  to  no  man  in  firm  adherence,  alike  of  conviction 
and  of  purpose,  to  the  principle  of  arbitration  in  industrial 
disputes;  but  matters  have  come  to  a  sudden  crisis  in  this 


Woodrow    Wilson 

particular  dispute  and  the  country  had  been  caught  un 
provided  with  any  practicable  means  of  enforcing  that 
conviction  in  practice  (by  whose  fault  we  will  not  now 
stop  to  inquire).  A  situation  had  to  be  met  whose  ele 
ments  and  fixed  conditions  were  indisputable.  The  prac 
tical  and  patriotic  course  to  pursue,  as  it  seemed  to  me, 
was  to  secure  immediate  peace  by  conceding  the  one  thing 
in  the  demands  of  the  men  which  society  itself  and  any 
arbitrators  who  represented  public  sentiment  were  most 
likely  to  approve,  and  immediately  lay  the  foundations  for 
securing  arbitration  with  regard  to  everything  else  involved. 
The  event  has  confirmed  that  judgment. 

I  was  seeking  to  compose  the  present  in  order  to  safe 
guard  the  future;  for  I  wished  an  atmosphere  of  peace  and 
friendly  cooperation  in  which  to  take  counsel  with  the  rep 
resentatives  of  the  nation  with  regard  to  the  best  means 
for  providing,  so  far  as  it  might  prove  possible  to  provide, 
against  the  recurrence  of  such  unhappy  situations  in  the 
future — the  best  and  most  practicable  means  of  securing 
calm  and  fair  arbitration  of  all  industrial  disputes  in  the 
days  to  come.  This  is  assuredly  the  best  way  of  vindicating 
a  principle,  namely,  having  failed  to  make  certain  of  its 
observance  in  the  present,  to  make  certain  of  its  observance 
in  the  future. 

But  I  could  only  propose.  I  could  not  govern  the  will 
of  others  who  took  an  entirely  different  view  of  the  circum 
stances  of  the  case,  who  even  refused  to  admit  the  circum 
stances  to  be  what  they  have  turned  out  to  be. 

Having  failed  to  bring  the  parties  to  this  critical  con 
troversy  to  an  accommodation,  therefore,  I  turn  to  you, 
deeming  it  clearly  our  duty  as  public  servants  to  leave  noth 
ing  undone  that  we  can  do  to  safeguard  the  life  and  in 
terests  of  the  nation.  In  the  spirit  of  such  a  purpose,  I 
earnestly  recommend  the  following  legislation: 

First,  immediate  provision  for  the  enlargement  and  ad 
ministrative  reorganization  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 

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Commission  along  the  lines  embodied  in  the  bill  recently 
passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives  and  now  awaiting 
action  by  the  Senate;  in  order  that  the  Commission  may 
be  enabled  to  deal  with  the  many  great  and  various  duties 
now  devolving  upon  it  with  a  promptness  and  thoroughness 
which  are  with  its  present  constitution  and  means  of  action 
practically  impossible. 

Second,  the  establishment  of  an  eight-hour  day  as  the 
legal  basis  alike  of  work  and  of  wages  in  the  employment 
of  all  railway  employees  who  are  actually  engaged  in  the 
work  of  operating  trains  in  interstate  transportation. 

Third,  the  authorization  of  the  appointment  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  a  small  body  of  men  to  observe  the  actual  results 
in  experience  of  the  adoption  of  the  eight-hour  day  in  rail 
way  transportation  alike  for  the  men  and  for  the  railroads ; 
its  effects  in  the  matter  of  operating  costs,  in  the  applica 
tion  of  the  existing  practices  and  agreements  to  the  new 
conditions,  and  in  all  other  practical  aspects,  with  the  pro 
vision  that  the  investigators  shall  report  their  conclusions 
to  the  Congress  at  the  earliest  possible  date,  but  without 
recommendation  as  to  legislative  action;  in  order  that  the 
public  may  learn  from  an  unprejudiced  source  just  what 
actual  developments  have  ensued. 

Fourth,  explicit  approval  by  the  Congress  of  the  con 
sideration  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  of  an 
increase  of  freight  rates  to  meet  such  additional  expendi 
tures  by  the  railroads  as  may  have  been  rendered  necessary 
by  the  adoption  of  the  eight-hour  day  and  which  have  not 
been  offset  by  administrative  readjustments  and  economies, 
should  the  facts  disclosed  justify  the  increase. 

Fifth,  an  amendment  of  the  existing  federal  statute  which 
provides  for  the  mediation,  conciliation,  and  arbitration  of 
such  controversies  as  the  present  by  adding  to  it  a  pro 
vision  that  in  case  the  methods  of  accommodation  now  pro 
vided  for  should  fail,  a  full  public  investigation  of  the  merits 
of  every  such  dispute  shall  be  instituted  and  completed 

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before   a    strike    or   lockout   may    lawfully    be    attempted. 

And,  sixth,  the  lodgement  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive 
of  the  power,  in  case  of  military  necessity,  to  take  control 
of  such  portions  and  such  rolling  stock  of  the  railways  of 
the  country  as  may  be  required  for  military  use  and  to 
operate  them  for  military  purposes,  with  authority  to  draft 
into  the  military  service  of  the  United  States  sucli  train 
crews  and  administrative  officials  as  the  circumstances  re 
quire  for  their  safe  and  efficient  use. 

This  last  suggestion  I  make  because  we  cannot  in  any 
circumstances  suffer  the  nation  to  be  hampered  in  the  essen 
tial  matter  of  national  defense.  At  the  present  moment 
circumstances  render  this  duty  particularly  obvious.  Al 
most  the  entire  military  force  of  the  nation  is  stationed 
upon  the  Mexican  border  to  guard  our  territory  against 
hostile  raids.  It  must  be  supplied,  and  steadily  supplied, 
with  whatever  it  needs  for  its  maintenance  and  efficiency. 
If  it  should  be  necessary  for  purposes  of  national  defense 
to  transfer  any  portion  of  it  upon  short  notice  to  some  other 
part  of  the  country,  for  reasons  now  unforeseen,  ample 
means  of  transportation  must  be  available,  and  available 
without  delay.  The  power  conferred  in  this  matter  should 
be  carefully  and  explicitly  limited  to  cases  of  military 
necessity,  but  in  all  such  cases  it  should  be  clear  and  ample. 

There  is  one  other  thing  we  should  do  if  we  are  true 
champions  of  arbitration.  We  should  make  all  arbitral 
awards  judgments  by  record  of  a  court  of  law  in  order 
that  their  interpretation  and  enforcement  may  lie,  not  with 
one  of  the  parties  to  the  arbitration,  but  with  an  impartial 
and  authoritative  tribunal. 

These  things  I  urge  upon  you,  not  in  haste  or  merely 
as  a  means  of  meeting  a  present  emergency,  but  as  perma 
nent  and  necessary  additions  to  the  law  of  the  land,  sug 
gested,  indeed,  by  circumstances  we  had  hoped  never  to 
see,  but  imperative  as  well  as  just,  if  such  emergencies 
are  to  be  prevented  in  the  future.  I  feel  that  no  extended 

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argument  is  needed  to  commend  them  to  your  favorable 
consideration.  They  demonstrate  themselves.  The  time 
and  the  occasion  only  give  emphasis  to  their  importance. 
We  need  them  now  and  we  shall  continue  to  need  them. 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  In  response  to  this  Address,  Congress  passed 
the  Adamson  bill,  and  the  President  signed  it  on  September  3.  It 
enacted  into  law  only  two  of  the  recommendations — the  eight-hour 
day  and  the  authorization  of  a  commission  to  study  the  matter  and 
report  to  Congress.  The  eight-hour  law  provides  for  a  standard 
eight-hour  work  day  for  railway  train  employees,  and  for  payment 
for  overtime  at  not  less  than  the  pro-rata  rate.  The  railway  em 
ployees  had  demanded  time  and  one-half  for  all  overtime.  The 
opposition  contended  that  the  eifect  of  the  law  was  not  to  shorten 
hours  of  work,  but  rather  to  increase  wages.  The  statute  was, 
however,  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court,  by  a  5  to  4  decision.] 


WILSON   ACCEPTS   His   RENOMINATION 

(Address  delivered  at  Long  Branch,  N.  J., 
September  2,  1916.) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  President  Wilson  and  V ice-President 
Marshall  had  been  renominated  by  acclamation  in  the  Dem 
ocratic  National  Convention  at  St.  Louis,  on  June  15,  1916. 
Five  days  earlier  the  Republican  National  Convention  at 
Chicago  had  chosen  Charles  Evans  Hughes,  of  New  York, 
for  President,  and  Charles  Warren  Fairbanks,  of  Indiana, 
for  V ice-President. 

The  formal  notification  ceremonies  were  held  at  the  Presi 
dent's  summer  nome.  United  States  Senator  Ollie  M. 
James,  of  Kentucky,  made  the  notification  speech.] 

Senator  James,  Gentlemen  of  the  Notification  Committee, 
Fellow-Citizens : 

I  cannot  accept  the  leadership  and  responsibility  which 
the  National  Democratic  Convention  has  again,  in  such 
generous  fashion,  asked  me  to  accept  without  first  express- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

ing  my  profound  gratitude  to  the  party  for  the  trust  it 
reposes  in  me  after  four  years  of  fiery  trial  in  the  midst 
of  affairs  of  unprecedented  difficulty,  and  the  keen  sense 
of  added  responsibility  with  which  this  honour  fills  (I  had 
almost  said  burdens)  me  as  I  think  of  the  great  issues  of 
national  life  and  policy  involved  in  the  present  and  imme 
diate  future  conduct  of  our  Government.  I  shall  seek,  as 
I  have  always  sought,  to  justify  the  extraordinary  confi 
dence  thus  reposed  in  me  by  striving  to  purge  my  heart 
and  purpose  of  every  personal  and  of  every  misleading 
party  motive  and  devoting  every  energy  I  have  to  the  serv- 
vice  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  praying  that  I  may  continue 
to  have  the  counsel  and  support  of  all  forward-looking  men 
at  every  turn  of  the  difficult  business. 

For  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
will  wish  the  Democratic  Party  to  continue  in  control  of 
the  Government.  They  are  not  in  the  habit  of  rejecting 
those  who  have  actually  served  them  for  those  who  are 
making  doubtful  and  conjectural  promises  of  service.  Least 
of  all  are  they  likely  to  substitute  those  who  promised  to 
render  them  particular  services  and  proved  false  to  that 
promise  for  those  who  have  actually  rendered  those  very 
services. 

Boasting  is  always  an  empty  business,  which  pleases  no 
body  but  the  boaster,  ^.nd  I  have  no  disposition  to  boast 
of  what  the  Democratic  Party  has  accomplished.  It  has 
merely  done  its  duty.  It  has  merely  fulfilled  its  explicit 
promises.  But  there  can  be  no  violation  of  good  taste  in 
calling  attention  to  the  manner  in  which  those  promises 
have  been  carried  out  or  in  adverting  to  the  interesting 
fact  that  many  of  the  things  accomplished  were  what  the 
opposition  party  had  again  and  again  promised  to  do  but 
had  left  undone.  Indeed  that  is  manifestly  part  of  the 
business  of  this  year  of  reckoning  and  assessment.  There 
is  no  means  of  judging  the  future  except  by  assessing  the 
past.  Constructive  action  must  be  weighed  against  de- 

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struetive  comment  and  reaction.  The  Democrats  either 
have  or  have  not  understood  «he  varied  interests  of  the 
country.  The  test  is  contained  in  the  record. 

What  is  that  record?  What  were  the  Democrats  called 
into  power  to  do?  What  things  had  long  waited  to  be 
done,  and  how  did  the  Democrats  do  them?  It  is  a  record 
of  extraordinary  length  and  variety,  rich  in  elements  of 
many  kinds,  but  consistent  in  principle  throughout  and 
susceptible  of  brief  recital. 

The  Republican  party  was  put  out  of  power  because  of 
failure,  practical  failure  and  moral  failure;  because  it  had 
served  special  interests  and  not  the  country  at  large;  be 
cause,  under  the  leadership  of  its  preferred  and  established 
guides,  of  those  who  still  make  its  choices,  it  had  lost  touch 
with  the  thoughts  and  the  needs  of  the  nation  and  was 
living  in  a  past  age  and  under  a  fixed  illusion,  the  illusion 
of  greatness.  It  had  framed  tariff  laws  based  upon  a  fear 
of  foreign  trade,  a  fundamental  doubt  as  to  American  skill, 
enterprise,  and  capacity,  and  a  very  tender  regard  for  the 
profitable  privileges  of  those  who  had  gained  control  of 
domestic  markets  and  domestic  credits ;  and  yet  had  enacted 
anti-trust  laws  which  hampered  the  very  things  they  meant 
to  foster,  which  were  stiff  and  inelastic,  and  in  part  unin 
telligible.  It  had  permitted  the  country  throughout  the 
long  period  of  its  control  to  stagger  from  one  financial 
crisis  to  another  under  the  operation  of  a  national  banking 
law  of  its  own  framing  which  made  stringency  and  panic 
certain  and  the  control  of  the  larger  business  operations  of 
the  country  by  the  bankers  of  a  few  reserve  centres  in 
evitable;  had  made  as  if  it  meant  to  reform  the  law  but 
had  faint-heartedly  failed  in  the  attempt,  because  it  could 
not  bring  itself  to  do  the  one  thing  necessary  to  make  the 
reform  genuine  and  effectual,  namely,  break  up  the  control 
of  small  groups  of  bankers.  It  had  been  oblivious,  or 
indifferent,  to  the  fact  that  the  farmers,  upon  whom  the 
country  depends  for  its  food  and  in  t^*  last  analysis  for 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

its  prosperity,  were  without  standing  in  the  matter  of  com 
mercial  credit,  without  the  protection  of  standards  in  their 
market  transactions,  and  without  systematic  knowledge  of 
the  marketr  themselves;  that  the  labourers  of  the  country, 
the  greaj  army  of  men  who  man  the  industries  it  was  pro 
fessing  to  father  and  promote,  carried  their  labour  as  a 
mere  commodity  to  market,  were  subject  to  restraint  by 
novel  and  drastic  process  in  the  courts,  were  without  as 
surance  of  compensation  for  industrial  accidents,  without 
federal  assistance  in  accommodating  labour  disputes,  and 
without  national  aid  or  advice  in  finding  the  places  and  the 
industries  in  which  their  labour  was  most  needed.  The 
country  had  no  national  system  of  road  construction  and 
development.  Little  intelligent  attention  was  paid  to  the 
army,  and  not  enough  to  the  navy.  The  other  republics  of 
America  distrusted  us,  because  they  found  that  we  thought 
first  of  the  profits  of  American  investors  and  only  as  an 
afterthought  of  impartial  justice  and  helpful  friendship. 
Its  policy  was  provincial  in  all  things;  its  purposes  were 
out  of  harmony  with  the  temper  and  purpose  of  the  people 
and  the  timely  development  of  the  nation's  interests. 

So  things  stood  when  the  Democratic  Party  came  into 
power.  How  do  they  stand  now?  Alike  in  the  domestic 
field  and  in  the  wide  field  of  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
American  business  and  life  and  industry  have  been  set 
free  to  move  as  they  never  moved  before. 

The  tariff  has  been  revised,  not  on  the  principle  of  re 
pelling  foreign  trade,  but  upon  the  principle  of  encouraging 
it,  upon  something  like  a  footing  of  equality  with  our  own 
in  respect  of  the  terms  of  competition,  and  a  Tariff  Board 
has  been  created  whose  function  it  will  be  to  keep  the  rela 
tions  of  American  with  foreign  business  and  industry  under 
constant  observation,  for  the  guidance  alike  of  our  business 
men  and  of  our  Congress.  American  energies  are  now 
directed  towards  the  markets  of  the  world. 

The  laws  against  trusts  have  been  clarified  by  definition, 

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with  a  view  to  making  it  plain  that  they  were  not  directed 
against  big  business  but  only  against  unfair  business  and 
the  pretense  of  competition  where  there  was  none;  and  a 
Trade  Commission  has  been  created  with  powers  of  guid 
ance  and  accommodation  which  have  relieved  business  men 
of  unfounded  fears  and  set  them  upon  the  road  of  hopeful 
and  confident  enterprise. 

By  the  Federal  Reserve  Act  the  supply  of  currency  at 
the  disposal  of  active  business  has  been  rendered  elastic, 
taking  its  volume,  not  from  a  fixed  body  of  investment 
securities,  but  from  the  liquid  assets  of  daily  trade;  and 
these  assets  are  assessed  and  accepted,  not  by  distant  groups 
of  bankers  in  control  of  unavailable  reserves,  but  by  bank 
ers  at  the  many  centres  of  local  exchange  who  are  in  touch 
with  local  conditions  everywhere. 

Effective  measures  have  been  taken  for  the  re-creation 
of  an  American  merchant  marine  and  the  revival  of  the 
American  carrying  trade  indispensable  to  our  emancipation 
from  the  control  which  foreigners  have  so  long  exercised 
over  the  opportunities,  the  routes,  and  the  methods  of  our 
commerce  with  other  countries. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has  been  reor 
ganized  to  enable  it  to  perform  its  great  and  important 
functions  more  promptly  and  more  efficiently.  We  have 
created,  extended  and  improved  the  service  of  the  parcels 
post. 

So  much  we  have  done  for  business.  What  other  party 
has  understood  the  task  so  well  or  executed  it  so  intelli 
gently  and  energetically  ?  What  other  party  has  attempted 
it  at  all?  The  Republican  leaders,  apparently,  know  of 
no  means  of  assisting  business  but  "protection."  How  to 
stimulate  it  and  put  it  upon  a  new  footing  of  energy  and 
enterprise  they  have  not  suggested. 

For  the  farmers  of  the  country  we  have  virtually  created 
commercial  credit,  by  means  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Act 
and  the  Rural  Credits  Act.  They  now  have  the  standing 

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of  other  business  men  in  the  money  market.  We  have 
successfully  regulated  speculation  in  "futures"  and  estab 
lished  standards  in  the  marketing  of  grains.  By  an  intelli 
gent  Warehouse  Act  we  have  assisted  to  make  the  standard 
crops  available  as  never  before  both  for  systematic  mar 
keting  and  as  a  security  for  loans  from  the  banks.  We 
have  greatly  added  to  the  work  of  neighborhood  demon 
stration  on  the  farm  itself  of  improved  methods  of  cultiva 
tion,  and,  through  the  intelligent  extension  of  the  functions 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  have  made  it  possible 
for  the  farmer  to  learn  systematically  where  his  best  mar 
kets  are  and  how  to  get  at  them. 

The  workingmen  of  America  have  been  given  a  veritable 
emancipation,  by  the  legal  recognition  of  a  man's  labour 
as  part  of  his  life,  and  not  a  mere  marketable  commodity; 
by  exempting  labour  organizations  from  processes  of  the 
courts  which  treated  their  members  like  fractional  parts 
of  mobs  and  not  like  accessible  and  responsible  individuals  ; 
by  releasing  our  seamen  from  involuntary  servitude;  by 
making  adequate  provision  for  compensation  for  industrial 
accidents;  by  providing  suitable  machinery  for  mediation 
and  conciliation  in  industrial  disputes;  and  by  putting  the 
Federal  Department  of  Labor  at  the  disposal  of  the  work- 
ingman  when  in  search  of  work. 

We  have  effected  the  emancipation  of  the  children  of  the 
country  by  releasing  them  from  hurtful  labour.  We  have 
instituted  a  system  of  national  aid  in  the  building  of  high 
roads  such  as  the  country  has  been  feeling  after  for  a  cen 
tury.  We  have  sought  to  equalize  taxation  by  means  of 
an  equitable  income  tax.  We  have  taken  the  steps  that 
ought  to  have  been  taken  at  the  outset  to  open  up  the  re 
sources  of  Alaska.  We  have  provided  for  national  defense 
upon  a  scale  never  before  seriously  proposed  upon  the 
responsibility  of  an  entire  political  party.  We  have  driven 
the  tariff  lobby  from  cover  and  obliged  it  to  substitute  solid 
argument  for  private  influence. 

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This  extraordinary  recital  must  sound  like  a  platform,  a 
list  of  sanguine  promises;  but  it  is  not.  It  is  a  record  of 
promises  made  four  years  ago  and  now  actually  redeemed 
in  constructive  legislation. 

These  things  must  profoundly  disturb  the  thoughts  and 
confound  the  plans  of  those  who  have  made  themselves 
believe  that  the  Democratic  Party  neither  understood  nor 
was  ready  to  assist  the  business  of  the  country  in  the  great 
enterprises  which  it  is  its  evident  and  inevitable  destiny 
to  undertake  and  carry  through.  The  breaking  up  of  the 
lobby  must  especially  disconcert  them;  for  it  was  through 
the  lobby  that  they  sought  and  were  sure  they  had  found 
the  heart  of  things.  The  game  of  privilege  can  be  played 
successfully  by  no  other  means. 

This  record  must  equally  astonish  those  who  feared  that 
the  Democratic  Party  had  not  opened  its  heart  to  compre 
hend  the  demands  of  social  justice.  We  have  in  four  years 
come  very  near  to  carrying  out  the  platform  of  the  Pro 
gressive  Party  as  well  as  our  own;  for  we  also  are  pro 
gressives. 

There  is  one  circumstance  connected  with  this  programme 
which  ought  to  be  very  plainly  stated.  It  was  resisted 
at  every  step  by  the  interests  which  the  Republican  Party 
had  catered  to  and  fostered  at  the  expense  of  the  country, 
and  these  same  interests  are  now  earnestly  praying  for  a 
reaction  which  will  save  their  privileges, — for  the  restora 
tion  of  their  sworn  friends  to  power  before  it  is  too  late 
to  recover  what  they  have  lost.  They  fought  with  par 
ticular  desperation  and  infinite  resourcefulness  the  reform 
of  the  banking  and  currency  system,  knowing  that  to  be 
the  citadel  of  their  control;  and  most  anxiously  are  they 
hoping  and  planning  for  the  amendment  of  the  Federal 
Reserve  Act  by  the  concentration  of  control  in  a  single 
bank  which  the  old  familiar  group  of  bankers  can  keep 
under  their  eye  and  direction.  But  while  the  "big  men" 
who  used  to  write  the  tariffs  and  command  the  assistance 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

of  the  Treasury  have  been  hostile, — all  but  a  few  with 
vision, — the  average  business  man  knows  that  he  has  been 
delivered,,  and  that  the  fear  that  was  once  every  day  in  his 
heart,  that  the  men  who  controlled  credit  and  directed 
enterprise  from  the  committee  rooms  of  Congress  would 
crush  him,  is  there  no  more,  and  will  not  return, — unless 
the  party  that  consulted  only  the  "big  men"  should  return 
to  power, — the  party  of  masterly  inactivity  and  cunning 
resourcefulness  in  standing  pat  to  resist  change. 

The  Republican  Party  is  just  the  party  that  cannot  meet 
the  new  conditions  of  a  new  age.  It  does  not  know  the 
way  and  it  does  not  wish  new  conditions.  It  tried  to  break 
away  from  the  old  leaders  and  could  not.  They  still  select 
its  candidates  and  dictate  its  policy,  still  resist  change, 
still  hanker  after  the  old  conditions,  still  know  no  methods 
of  encouraging  business  but  the  old  methods.  When  it 
changes  its  leaders  and  its  purposes  and  brings  its  ideas 
up  to  date  it  will  have  the  right  to  ask  the  American  people 
to  give  it  power  again;  but  not  until  then.  A  new  age,  an 
age  of  revolutionary  change,  needs  new  purposes  and  new 
ideas. 

In  foreign  affairs  we  have  been  guided  by  principles 
clearly  conceived  and  consistently  lived  up  to.  Perhaps 
they  have  not  been  fully  comprehended  because  they  have 
hitherto  governed  international  affairs  only  in  theory,  not 
in  practice.  They  are  simple,  obvious,  easily  stated,  and 
fundamental  to  American  ideals. 

We  have  been  neutral  not  only  because  it  was  the  fixed 
and  traditional  policy  of  the  United  States  to  stand  aloof 
from  the  politics  of  Europe  and  because  we  had  had  no 
part  either  of  action  or  of  policy  in  the  influences  which 
brought  on  the  present  war,  but  also  because  it  was  mani 
festly  our  duty  to  prevent,  if  it  were  possible,  the  indefinite 
extension  of  the  fires  of  hate  and  desolation  kindled  by  that 
terrible  conflict  and  seek  to  serve  mankind  by  reserving 
our  strength  and  our  resources  for  the  anxious  and  difficult 

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days  of  restoration  and  healing  which  must  follow,  when 
peace  will  have  to  build  its  house  anew. 

The  rights  of  our  own  citizens  of  course  became  involved: 
that  was  inevitable.  Where  they  did  this  was  our  guiding 
principle:  that  property  rights  can  be  vindicated  by  claims 
for  damages  when  the  war  is  over,  and  no  modern  nation 
can  decline  to  arbitrate  such  claims;  but  the  fundamental 
rights  of  humanity  cannot  be.  The  loss  of  life  is  irrepa 
rable.  Neither  can  direct  violations  of  a  nation's  sover 
eignty  await  vindication  in  suits  for  damages.  The  nation 
that  violates  these  essential  rights  must  expect  to  be  checked 
and  called  to  account  by  direct  challenge  and  resistance. 
It  at  once  makes  the  quarrel  in  part  our  own.  These  are 
plain  principles  and  we  have  never  lost  sight  of  them  or  de 
parted  from  them,  whatever  the  stress  or  the  perplexity 
of  circumstance  or  the  provocation  to  hasty  resentment. 
The  record  is  clear  and  consistent  throughout  and  stands 
distinct  and  definite  for  anyone  to  judge  who  wishes  to 
know  the  truth  about  it. 

The  seas  were  not  broad  enough  to  keep  the  infection 
of  the  conflict  out  of  our  own  politics.  The  passions  and 
intrigues  of  certain  active  groups  and  combinations  of 
men  amongst  us  who  were  born  under  foreign  flags  injected 
the  poison  of  disloyalty  into  our  own  most  critical  affairs, 
laid  violent  hands  upon  many  of  our  industries,  and  sub 
jected  us  to  the  shame  of  divisions  of  sentiment  and  pur 
pose  in  which  America  was  contemned  and  forgotten.  It 
is  part  of  the  business  of  this  year  of  reckoning  and  settle 
ment  to  speak  plainly  and  act  with  unmistakable  purpose 
in  rebuke  of  these  things,  in  order  that  they  may  be  forever 
hereafter  impossible.  I  am  the  candidate  of  a  party,  but 
I  am  above  all  things  else  an  American  citizen.  I  neither 
seek  the  favour  nor  fear  the  displeasure  of  that  small  alien 
element  amongst  us  which  puts  loyalty  to  any  foreign  power 
before  loyalty  to  the  United  States. 

While  Europe  was  at  war  our  own  continent,  one  of  our 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

own  neighbours,  was  shaken  by  revolution.  In  that  matter, 
too,  principle  was  plain  and  it  was  imperative  that  we 
should  live  up  to  it  if  we  were  to  deserve  the  trust  of  any 
real  partisan  of  the  right  as  free  men  see  it.  We  have  pro 
fessed  to  believe,  and  we  do  believe,  that  the  people  of 
small  and  weak  states  have  the  right  to  expect  to  be  dealt 
with  exactly  as  the  people  of  big  and  powerful  states  would 
be.  We  have  acted  upon  that  principle  in  dealing  with  the 
people  of  Mexico. 

Our  recent  pursuit  of  bandits  into  Mexican  territory  was 
no  violation  of  that  principle.  We  ventured  to  enter  Mex 
ican  territory  only  because  there  were  no  military  forces 
in  Mexico  that  could  protect  our  border  from  hostile  attack 
and  our  own  people  from  violence,  and  we  have  committed 
there  no  single  act  of  hostility  or  interference  even  with 
the  sovereign  authority  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico  herself. 
It  was  a  plain  case  of  the  violation  of  our  own  sovereignty 
which  could  not  wait  to  be  vindicated  by  damages  and  for 
which  there  was  no  other  remedy.  The  authorities  of 
Mexico  were  powerless  to  prevent  it. 

Many  serious  wrongs  against  the  property,  many  irrepa 
rable  wrongs  against  the  persons,  of  Americans  have  been 
committed  within  the  territory  of  Mexico  herself  during 
this  confused  revolution,  wrongs  which  could  not  be  effectu 
ally  checked  so  long  as  there  was  no  constituted  power  in 
Mexico  which  was  in  a  position  to  check  them.  We  could 
not  act  directly  in  that  matter  ourselves  without  denying 
Mexicans  the  right  to  any  revolution  at  all  which  disturbed 
us  and  making  the  emancipation  of  her  own  people  await 
our  own  interest  and  convenience. 

For  it  is  their  emancipation  that  they  are  seeking, — 
blindly,  it  may  be,  and  as  yet  ineffectually,  but  with  pro 
found  and  passionate  purpose  and  within  their  unquestion 
able  right,  apply  what  true  American  principle  you  will, — 
any  principle  that  an  American  would  publicly  avow.  The 
people  of  Mexico  have  not  been  suffered  to  own  their  own 

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country  or  direct  their  own  institutions.  Outsiders,  men 
out  of  other  nations  and  with  interests  too  often  alien  to 
their  own,  have  dictated  what  their  privileges  and  opportu 
nities  should  be  and  who  should  control  their  land,  their 
lives,  and  their  resources, — some  of  them  Americans,  press 
ing  for  things  they  could  never  have  got  in  their  own  coun 
try.  The  Mexican  people  are  entitled  to  attempt  their 
liberty  from  such  influences;  and  so  long  as  I  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  the  action  of  our  great  Government  I 
shall  do  everything  in  my  power  to  prevent  anyone  stand 
ing  in  their  way.  I  know  that  this  is  hard  for  some  per 
sons  to  understand;  but  it  is  not  hard  for  the  plain  people 
of  the  United  States  to  understand.  It  is  hard  doctrine 
only  for  those  who  wish  to  get  something  for  themselves 
out  of  Mexico.  There  are  men,  and  noble  women,  too,  not 
a  few,  of  our  own  people,  thank  God!  whose  fortunes  are 
invested  in  great  properties  in  Mexico  who  yet  see  the 
case  with  true  vision  and  assess  its  issues  with  true  Ameri 
can  feeling.  The  rest  can  be  left  for  the  present  out  of  the 
reckoning  until  this  enslaved  people  has  had  its  day  of 
struggle  towards  the  light.  I  have  heard  no  one  who  was 
free  from  such  influences  propose  interference  by  the 
United  States  with  the  internal  affairs  of  Mexico.  Cer 
tainly  no  friend  of  the  Mexican  people  has  proposed  it. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  are  capable  of  great 
sympathies  and  a  noble  pity  in  dealing  with  problems  of 
this  kind.  As  their  spokesman  and  representative,  I  have 
tried  to  act  in  the  spirit  they  would  wish  me  show.  The 
people  of  Mexico  are  striving  for  the  rights  that  are  funda 
mental  to  life  and  happiness, — fifteen  million  oppressed 
men,  overburdened  women,  and  pitiful  children  in  virtual 
bondage  in  their  own  home  of  fertile  lands  and  inexhausti 
ble  treasure!  Some  of  the  leaders  of  the  revolution  may 
often  have  been  mistaken  and  violent  and  selfish,  but  the 
revolution  itself  was  inevitable  and  is  right.  The  unspeak 
able  Huerta  betrayed  the  very  comrades  he  served,  traitor- 

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ously  overthrew  the  government  of  which  he  was  a  trusted 
part,  impudently  spoke  for  the  very  forces  that  had  driven 
his  people  to  the  rebellion  with  which  he  had  pretended 
to  sympathize.  The  men  who  overcame  him  and  drove  him 
out  represent  at  least  the  fierce  passion  of  reconstruction 
which  lies  at  the  very  heart  of  liberty;  and  so  long  as  they 
represent,  however  imperfectly,  such  a  struggle  for  deliv 
erance,  I  am  ready  to  serve  their  ends  when  I  can.  So 
long  as  the  power  of  recognition  rests  with  me  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  will  refuse  to  extend  the  hand 
of  welcome  to  any  one  who  obtains  power  in  a  sister  re 
public  by  treachery  and  violence.  No  permanency  can  be 
given  the  affairs  of  any  republic  by  a  title  based  upon  in 
trigue  and  assassination.  I  declared  that  to  be  the  policy 
of  this  Administration  within  three  weeks  after  I  assumed 
the  presidency.  I  here  again  vow  it.  I  am  more  inter 
ested  in  the  fortunes  of  oppressed  men  and  pitiful  women 
and  children  than  in  any  property  rights  whatever.  Mis 
takes  I  have  no  doubt  made  in  this  perplexing  business, 
but  not  in  purpose  or  object. 

More  is  involved  than  the  immediate  destinies  of  Mexico 
and  the  relations  of  the  United  States  with  a  distressed 
and  distracted  people.  All  America  looks  on.  Test  is  now 
being  made  of  us  whether  we  be  sincere  lovers  of  popular 
liberty  or  not  and  are  indeed  to  be  trusted  to  respect  na 
tional  sovereignty  among  our  weaker  neighbours.  We  have 
undertaken  these  many  years  to  play  big  brother  to  the 
republics  of  this  hemisphere.  This  is  the  day  of  our  test 
whether  we  mean,  or  have  ever  meant,  to  play  that  part 
for  our  own  benefit  wholly  or  also  for  theirs.  Upon  the 
outcome  of  that  test  (its  outcome  in  their  minds,  not  in 
ours)  depends  every  relationship  of  the  United  States  with 
Latin  America,  whether  in  politics  or  in  commerce  and  en 
terprise.  These  are  great  issues  and  lie  at  the  heart  of  the 
gravest  tasks  of  the  future,  tasks  both  economic  and  polit 
ical  and  very  intimately  inwrought  with  many  of  the  most 

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vital  of  the  new  issues  of  the  politics  of  the  world.  The 
republics  of  America  have  in  the  last  three  years  been 
drawing  together  in  a  new  spirit  of  accommodation,  mutual 
understanding,  and  cordial  cooperation.  Much  of  the  poli 
tics  of  the  world  in  the  years  to  come  will  depend  upon 
their  relationships  with  one  another.  It  is  a  barren  and 
provincial  statesmanship  that  loses  sight  of  such  things! 

The  future,  the  immediate  future,  will  bring  us  squarely 
face  to  face  with  many  great  and  exacting  problems  which 
will  search  us  through  and  through  whether  we  be  able  and 
ready  to  play  the  part  in  the  world  that  we  mean  to  play. 
It  will  not  bring  us  into  their  presence  slowly,  gently,  with 
ceremonious  introduction,  but  suddenly  and  at  once,  the 
moment  the  war  in  Europe  is  over.  They  will  be  new 
problems,  most  of  them;  many  will  be  old  problems  in  a 
new  setting  and  with  new  elements  which  we  have  never 
dealt  with  or  reckoned  the  force  and  meaning  of  before. 
They  will  require  for  their  solution  new  thinking,  fresh 
courage  and  resourcefulness,  and  in  some  matters  radical 
reconsiderations  of  policy.  We  must  be  ready  to  mobilize 
our  resources  alike  of  brains  and  of  materials. 

It  is  not  a  future  to  be  afraid  of.  It  is,  rather,  a  future 
to  stimulate  and  excite  us  to  the  display  of  the  best  powers 
that  are  in  us.  We  may  enter  it  with  confidence  when  we 
are  sure  that  we  understand  it, — and  we  have  provided 
ourselves  already  with  the  means  of  understanding  it. 

Look  first  at  what  it  will  be  necessary  that  the  nations 
of  the  world  should  do  to  make  the  days  to  come  tolerable 
and  fit  to  live  and  work  in;  and  then  look  at  our  part  in 
what  is  to  follow  and  our  own  duty  of  preparation.  For 
we  must  be  prepared  both  in  resources  and  in  policy. 

There  must  be  a  just  and  settled  peace,  and  we  here  in 
America  must  contribute  the  full  force  of  our  enthusiasm 
and  of  our  authority  as  a  nation  to  the  organization  of 
that  peace  upon  world-wide  foundations  that  cannot  easily 
be  shaken.  No  nation  should  be  forced  to  take  sides  in  any 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

quarrel  in  which  its  own  honour  and  integrity  and  the  for 
tunes  of  its  own  people  are  not  involved;  but  no  nation 
can  any  longer  remain  neutral  as  against  any  wilful  dis 
turbance  of  the  peace  of  the  world.  The  effects  of  war 
can  no  longer  be  confined  to  the  areas  of  battle.  No  nation 
stands  wholly  apart  in  interest  when  the  life  and  interests 
of  all  nations  are  thrown  into  confusion  and  peril.  If  hope 
ful  and  generous  enterprise  is  to  be  renewed,  if  the  healing 
and  helpful  arts  of  life  are  indeed  to  be  revived  when 
peace  comes  again,  a  new  atmosphere  of  justice  and  friend 
ship  must  be  generated  by  means  the  world  has  never  tried 
before.  The  nations  of  the  world  must  unite  in  joint  guar 
antees  that  whatever  is  done  to  disturb  the  whole  world's 
life  must  first  be  tested  in  the  court  of  the  whole  world's 
opinion  before  it  is  attempted. 

These  are  the  new  foundations  the  world  must  build  for 
itself,  and  we  must  play  our  part  in  the  reconstruction,  gen 
erously  and  without  too  much  thought  of  our  separate  in 
terests.  We  must  make  ourselves  ready  to  play  it  intelli 
gently,  vigorously  and  well. 

One  of  the  contributions  we  must  make  to  the  world's 
peace  is  this:  We  must  see  to  it  that  the  people  in  our 
insular  possessions  are  treated  in  their  own  lands  as  we 
would  treat  them  here,  and  make  the  rule  of  the  United 
States  mean  the  same  thing  everywhere, — the  same  justice, 
the  same  consideration  for  the  essential  rights  of  men. 

Besides  contributing  our  ungrudging  moral  and  practical 
support  to  the  establishment  of  peace  throughout  the  world 
we  must  actively  and  intelligently  prepare  ourselves  to  do 
our  full  service  in  the  trade  and  industry  which  are  to  sus 
tain  and  develop  the  life  of  the  nations  in  the  days  to  come. 

We  have  already  been  provident  in  this  great  matter  and 
supplied  ourselves  with  the  instrumentalities  of  prompt  ad 
justment.  We  have  created,  in  the  Federal  Trade  Com 
mission,  a  means  of  inquiry  and  of  accommodation  in  the 
field  of  commerce  which  ought  both  to  coordinate  the  en- 

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terprises  of  our  traders  and  manufacturers  and  to  remove 
the  barriers  of  misunderstanding  and  of  a  too  technical 
interpretation  of  the  law.  In  the  new  Tariff  Commission 
we  have  added  another  instrumentality  of  observation  and 
adjustment  which  promises  to  be  immediately  serviceable. 
The  Trade  Commission  substitutes  counsel  and  accommo 
dation  for  the  harsher  processes  of  legal  restraint,  and  the 
Tariff  Commission  ought  to  substitute  facts  for  prejudices 
and  theories.  Our  exporters  have  for  some  time  had  the 
advantage  of  working  in  the  new  light  thrown  upon  foreign 
markets  and  opportunities  of  trade  by  the  intelligent  in 
quiries  and  activities  of  the  Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domes 
tic  Commerce  which  the  Democratic  Congress  so  wisely 
created  in  1912.  The  tariff  Commission  completes  the  ma 
chinery  by  which  we  shall  be  enabled  to  open  up  our  legis 
lative  policy  to  the  facts  as  they  develop. 

We  can  no  longer  indulge  our  traditional  provincialism. 
We  are  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  world  drama  whether 
we  wish  it  or  not.  We  shall  lend,  not  borrow ;  act  for  our 
selves,  not  imitate  or  follow;  organize  and  initiate.,  not 
peep  about  merely  to  see  where  we  may  get  in. 

We  have  already  formulated  and  agreed  upon  a  policy 
of  law  which  will  explicitly  remove  the  ban  now  supposed 
to  rest  upon  cooperation  amongst  our  exporters  in  seeking 
and  securing  their  proper  place  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
The  field  will  be  free,  the  instrumentalities  at  hand.  It 
will  only  remain  for  the  masters  of  enterprise  amongst 
us  to  act  in  energetic  concert,  and  for  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  to  insist  upon  the  maintenance  through 
out  the  world  of  those  conditions  of  fairness  and  of  even- 
handed  justice  in  the  commercial  dealings  of  the  nations 
with  one  another  upon  which,  after  all,  in  the  last  analysis, 
the  peace  and  ordered  life  of  the  world  must  ultimately 
depend. 

At  home  also  we  must  see  to  it  that  the  men  who  plan 
and  develop  and  direct  our  business  enterprises  shall  enjoy 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

definite  and  settled  conditions  of  law,  a  policy  accommo 
dated  to  the  freest  progress.  We  have  set  the  just  and  nec 
essary  limits.  We  have  put  all  kinds  of  unfair  competition 
under  the  ban  and  penalty  of  the  law.  We  have  barred 
monopoly.  These  fatal  and  ugly  things  being  excluded,  we 
must  now  quicken  action  and  facilitate  enterprise  by  every 
just  means  within  our  choice.  There  will  be  peace  in  the 
business  world,  and,  with  peace,  revived  confidence  and  life. 

We  ought  both  to  husband  and  to  develop  our  natural 
resources,  our  mines,  our  forests,  our  water  power.  I  wish 
we  could  have  made  more  progress  than  we  have  made  in 
this  vital  matter;  and  I  call  once  more,  with  the  deepest 
earnestness  and  solicitude,  upon  the  advocates  of  a  careful 
and  provident  conservation,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
advocates  of  a  free  and  inviting  field  for  private  capital, 
on  the  other,  to  get  together  in  a  spirit  of  genuine  accom 
modation  and  agreement  and  set  this  great  policy  forward 
at  once. 

Wre  must  hearten  and  quicken  the  spirit  and  efficiency 
of  labour  throughout  our  whole  industrial  system  by  every 
where  and  in  all  occupations  doing  justice  to  the  labourer, 
not  only  by  paying  a  living  wage  but  also  by  making  all 
the  conditions  that  surround  labour  what  they  ought  to  be. 
And  we  must  do  more  than  justice.  We  must  safeguard 
life  and  promote  health  and  safety  in  every  occupation  in 
which  they  are  threatened  or  imperilled.  That  is  more  than 
justice,  and  better,  because  it  is  humanity  and  economy. 

We  must  coordinate  the  railway  systems  of  the  country 
for  national  use,  and  must  facilitate  and  promote  their  de 
velopment  with  a  view  to  that  coordination  and  to  their 
better  adaptation  as  a  whole  to  the  life  and  trade  and  de 
fense  of  the  nation.  The  life  and  industry  of  ths  country 
can  be  free  and  unhampered  only  if  these  arteries  are  open, 
efficient,  and  complete. 

Thus  shall  we  stand  ready  to  meet  the  future  as  circum 
stance  and  international  policy  effect  their  unfolding, 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

whether  the  changes  come  slowly  or  come  fast  and  without 
preface. 

I  have  not  spoken  explicitly,  Gentlemen,  of  the  platform 
adopted  at  St.  Louis;  but  it  has  been  implicit  in  all  that  I 
have  said.  I  have  sought  to  interpret  its  spirit  and  mean 
ing.  The  people  of  the  United  States  do  not  need  to  be 
assured  now  that  that  platform  is  a  definite  pledge,  a 
practical  programme.  We  have  proved  to  them  that  our 
promises  are  made  to  be  kept. 

We  hold  very  definite  ideals.  We  believe  that  the  energy 
and  initiative  of  our  people  have  been  too  narrowly  coached 
and  superintended;  that  they  should  be  set  free,  as  we  have 
set  them  free,  to  disperse  themselves  throughout  the  nation ; 
that  they  should  not  be  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
powerful  guides  and  guardians,  as  our  opponents  have 
again  and  again,  in  effect  if  not  in  purpose,  sought  to  con 
centrate  them.  We  believe,  moreover, — who  that  looks 
about  him  now  with  comprehending  eye  can  fail  to  believe  ? 
— that  the  day  of  Little  Americanism,  with  its  narrow 
horizons,  when  methods  of  "protection"  and  industrial  nur 
sing  were  the  chief  study  of  our  provincial  statesmen, 
are  past  and  gone  and  that  a  day  of  enterprise  has  at 
last  dawned  for  the  United  States  whose  field  is  the  wide 
world. 

We  hope  to  see  the  stimulus  of  that  new  day  draw  all 
America,  the  republics  of  both  continents,  on  to  a  new  life 
and  energy  and  initiative  in  the  great  affairs  of  peace.  We 
are  Americans  for  Big  America,  and  rejoice  to  look  for 
ward  to  the  days  in  which  America  shall  strive  to  stir  the 
world  without  irritating  it  or  drawing  it  on  to  new  antag 
onisms,  when  the  nations  with  which  we  deal  shall  at  last 
come  to  see  upon  what  deep  foundations  of  humanity  and 
justice  our  passion  for  peace  rests,  and  when  all  mankind 
shall  look  npon  our  great  people  with  a  new  sentiment  of 
admiration,  friendly  rivalry  and  real  affection,  as  upon  a 

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people  who,  though  keen  to  succeed,  seeks  always  to  be  at 
once  generous  and  just  and  to  whom  humanity  is  dearer 
than  profit  or  selfish  power. 

Upon  this  record  and  in  the  faith  of  this  purpose  we  go  to 
the  country. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  ON  LINCOLN 

(At  the  Formal  Acceptance  of  the  Lincoln  Memorial,  Built 

Over  the  Log-Cabin  Birthplace  at  Hodgenville,  Ky., 

September   4,   1916) 

N'o  more  significant  memorial  could  have  been  presented 
to  the  nation  than  this.  It  expresses  so  much  ui  what  is 
singular  and  noteworthy  in  the  history  of  the  country;  it 
suggests  so  many  of  the  things  that  we  prize  most  highly 
in  our  life  and  in  our  system  of  government.  How  elo 
quent  this  little  house  within  this  shrine  is  of  the  vigor 
of  democracy!  There  is  nowhere  in  the  land  any  home  so 
remote,  so  humble,  that  it  may  not  contain  the  power  of 
mind  and  heart  and  conscience  to  which  nations  yield  and 
history  submits  its  processes.  Nature  pays  no  tribute  to 
aristocracy,  subscribes  to  no  creed  of  caste,  renders  fealty 
to  no  monarch  or  master  of  any  name  or  kind.  Genius 
is  no  snob.  It  does  not  run  after  titles  or  seek  by  prefer 
ence  the  high  circles  of  society.  It  affects  humble  com 
pany  as  well  as  great.  It  pays  no  special  tribute  to  uni 
versities  or  learned  societies  or  conventional  standards  of 
greatness,  but  serenely  chooses  its  own  comrades,  its  own 
haunts,  its  own  cradle  even,  and  its  own  life  of  adventure 
and  of  training.  Here  is  proof  of  it.  This  little  hut  was 
the  cradle  of  one  of  the  great  sons  of  men,  a  man  of  singu 
lar,  delightful,  vital  genius  who  presently  emerged  upon 
the  great  stage  of  the  nation's  history,  gaunt,  shy,  ungainly, 
but  dominant  and  majestic,  a  natural  ruler  of  men,  himself 
inevitably  the  central  figure  of  the  great  plot.  No  man 

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can  explain  this,  but  every  man  can  see  how  it  demon 
strates  the  vigor  of  democracy,  where  every  door  is  open, 
in  every  hamlet  and  countryside,  in  city  and  wilderness 
alike,  for  the  ruler  to  emerge  when  he  will  and  claim  his 
leadership  in  the  free  life.  Such  are  the  authentic  proofs 
of  the  validity  and  vitality  of  democracy. 

Here,  no  less,  hides  the  mystery  of  democracy.  Who 
shall  guess  this  secret  of  nature  and  providence  and  a  free 
polity?  Whatever  the  vigor  and  vitality  of  the  stock  from 
which  he  sprang,  its  mere  vigor  and  soundness  do  not  ex 
plain  where  this  man  got  his  great  heart  that  seemed  to 
comprehend  all  mankind  in  its  catholic  and  benignant  sym 
pathy,  the  mind  that  sat  enthroned  behind  those  brooding, 
melancholy  eyes,  whose  vision  swept  many  an  horizon  which 
those  about  him  dreamed  not  of,  that  mind  that  compre 
hended  what  it  had  never  seen,  and  understood  the  language 
of  affairs  with  the  ready  ease  of  one  to  the  manner  born — 
or  that  nature  which  seemed  in  its  varied  richness  to  be 
the  familiar  of  men  of  every  way  of  life.  This  is  the  sacred 
mystery  of  democracy,  that  its  richest  fruits  spring  up  out 
of  soils  which  no  man  has  prepared  and  in  circumstances 
amidst  which  they  are  the  least  expected.  This  is  a  place 
alike  of  mystery  and  of  reassurance. 

It  is  likely  that  in  a  society  ordered  otherwise  than  our 
own  Lincoln  could  not  have  found  himself  or  the  path  of 
fame  and  power  upon  which  he  walked  serenely  to  his 
death.  In  this  place  it  is  right  that  we  should  remind  our 
selves  of  the  solid  and  striking  facts  upon  which  our  faith 
in  democracy  is  founded.  Many  another  man  besides  Lin 
coln  has  served  the  nation  in  its  highest  places  of  counsel 
and  of  action  whose  origins  were  as  humble  as  his.  Though 
the  greatest  example  of  the  universal  energy,  richness,  stim 
ulation,  and  force  of  democracy,  he  is  only  one  example 
among  many.  The  permeating  and  all-pervasive  virtue  of 
the  freedom  which  challenges  us  in  America  to  make  the 
most  of  every  gift  and  power  we  possess  every  page  of  our 


Woodrow    Wilson 

history  serves  to  emphasize  and  illustrate.  Standing  here 
in  this  place,  it  seems  almost  the  whole  of  the  stirring  story. 

Here  Lincoln  had  his  beginnings.  Here  the  end  and 
consummation  of  that  great  life  seem  remote  and  a  bit 
incredible.  And  yet  there  was  no  break  anywhere  be 
tween  beginning  and  end,  110  la*ck  of  natural  sequence  any 
where.  Nothing  really  incredible  happened.  Lincoln  was 
unaffectedly  as  much  at  home  in  the  White  House  as  he 
was  here.  Do  you  share  with  me  the  feeling,  I  wonder, 
that  he  was  permanently  at  home  nowhere?  It  seems  to 
me  that  in  the  case  of  a  man — I  would  rather  say  of  a 
spirit — like  Lincoln  the  question  where  he  was  is  of  little 
significance,  that  it  is  always  what  he  was  that  really 
arrests  our  thought  and  takes  hold  of  our  imagination.  It 
is  the  spirit  always  that  is  sovereign.  Lincoln,  like  the 
rest  of  us,  was  put  through  the  discipline  of  the  world — a 
very  rough  and  exacting  discipline  for  him,  an  indispensable 
discipline  for  every  man  who  would  know  what  he  is  about 
in  the  midst  of  the  world's  affairs ;  but  his  spirit  got  only 
its  schooling  there.  It  did  not  derive  its  character  or  its 
vision  from  the  experiences  which  brought  it  to  its  full 
revelation.  The  test  of  every  American  must  always  be, 
not  where  he  is,  but  what  he  is.  That,  also,  is  of  the 
essence  of  democracy,  and  is  the  moral  of  which  this  place 
is  most  gravely  expressive. 

We  would  like  to  think  of  men  like  Lincoln  and  Washing 
ton  as  typical  Americans,  but  no  man  can  be  typical  who 
is  so  unusual  as  these  great  men  were.  It  was  typical  of 
American  life  that  it  should  produce  such  men  with  supreme 
indifference  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  produced  them, 
and  as  readily  here  in  this  hut  as  amidst  the  little  circle  of 
cultivated  gentlemen  to  whom  Virginia  owed  so  much  in 
leadership  and  example.  And  Lincoln  and  Washington 
were  typical  Americans  in  the  use  they  made  of  their 
genius.  But  there  will  be  few  such  men  at  best,  and  we  will 
not  look  into  the  mystery  of  how  and  why  they  come.  We 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

will  only  keep  the  door  open  for  them  always,  and  a  hearty 
welcome — after  we  have  recognized  them. 

I  have  read  many  biographies  of  Lincoln;  I  have  sought 
out  with  the  greatest  interest  the  many  intimate  stories  that 
are  told  of  him,  the  narratives  of  nearby  friends,  the 
sketches  at  close  quarters,  in  which  those  who  had  the  privi 
lege  of  being  associated  with  him  have  tried  to  depict  for 
us  the  very  man  himself  "in  his  habit  as  he  lived;"  but  I 
have  nowhere  found  a  real  intimate  of  Lincoln's.  I  nowhere 
get  the  impression  in  any  narrative  or  reminiscence  that 
the  writer  had  in  fact  penetrated  to  the  heart  of  his  mys 
tery,  or  that  any  man  could  penetrate  to  the  heart  of  it. 
That  brooding  spirit  had  no  real  familiars.  I  get  the  im 
pression  that  it  never  spoke  out  in  complete  self-revelation, 
and  that  it  could  not  reveal  itself  completely  to  anyone.  It 
was  a  very  lonely  spirit  tha^t  looked  out  from  underneath 
those  shaggy  brows  and  comprehended  men  without  fully 
communing  with  them,  as  if,  in  spite  of  all  its  genial  efforts 
at  comradeship,  it  dwelt  apart,  saw  its  visions  of  duty 
where  no  man  looked  on.  There  is  a  very  holy  and  very 
terrible  isolation  for  the  conscience  of  every  man  who  seeks 
to  read  the  destiny  in  affairs  for  others  as  well  as  for  him 
self,  for  a  nation  as  well  as  for  individuals.  That  privacy 
no  man  can  intrude  upon.  That  lonely  search  of  the  spirit 
for  the  right  perhaps  no  man  can  assist.  This  strange  child 
of  the  cabin  kept  company  with  invisible  things,  was  born 
into  no  intimacy  but  that  of  its  own  silently  assembling  and 
deploying  thoughts. 

I  have  come  here  today,  not  to  utter  a  eulogy  on  Lin 
coln  ;  he  stands  in  need  of  none,  but  to  endeavor  to  interpret 
the  meaning  of  this  gift  to  the  nation  of  the  place  of  his 
birth  and  origin.  Is  not  this  an  altar  upon  which  we  may 
forever  keep  alive  the  vestal  fire  of  democracy  as  upon  a 
shrine  at  which  some  of  the  deepest  and  most  sacred  hopes 
of  mankind  may  from  age  to  age  be  rekindled?  For  these 
hopes  must  constantly  be  rekindled,  and  only  those  who 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

live  can  rekindle  them.  The  only  stuff  that  can  retain  the 
life-giving  heat  is  the  stuff  of  living  hearts.  And  the  hopes 
of  mankind  cannot  be  kept  alive  by  words  merely,  by  con 
stitutions  and  doctrines  of  right  and  codes  of  liberty.  The 
object  of  democracy  is  to  transmute  these  into  the  life  and 
action  of  society,  the  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice  of  heroic 
men  and  women  willing  to  make  their  lives  an  embodiment 
of  right  and  service  and  enlightened  purpose.  The  com 
mands  of  democracy  are  as  imperative  as  its  privileges  and 
opportunities  are  wide  and  generous.  Its  compulsion  is 
upon  us.  It  will  be  great  and  lift  a  great  light  for  the 
guidance  of  the  nations  only  if  we  are  great  and  carry  that 
light  high  for  the  guidance  of  our  own  feet.  We  are  not 
worthy  to  stand  here  unless  we  ourselves  be  in  deed  and 
in  truth  real  democrats  and  servants  of  mankind,  ready  to 
give  our  very  lives  for  the  freedom  and  justice  and  spir 
itual  exaltation  of  the  great  nation  which  shelters  and  nur 
tures  us. 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  AT  THE  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  CONVENTION, 
ATLANTIC  CITY,  N.  J.,  SEPTEMBER  8,  1916 

[The  rr~vement  for  woman  suffrage  had  made  great  advances 
within  recent  years;  and  in  the  approaching  election  women  were 
to  vote  in  twelve  States — seven  more  than  in  the  previous  Presi 
dential  contest.  Mr.  Hughes,  the  Republican  candidate,  had  given 
unqualified  approval  of  the  suffrage  movement,  but  President 
Wilson  had  displeased  one  faction  by  adhering  to  a  belief  that 
suffrage  was  a  question  each  State  should  settle  for  itself.  Tims 
he  had  supported  woman  suffrage  in  his  own  State  of  New  Jersey, 
but  had  refused  to  support  a  movement  for  the  adoption  of  a 
woman  suffrage  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution.] 

"Madam  President,  Indies  of  the  Association: 

The  astonishing  thing  about  the  movement  which  you 
represent  is,  not  that  it  has  grown  so  slowly,  but  that  it  has 
grown  so  rapidly.  No  doubt  for  those  who  have  been  a 
long  time  in  the  struggle,  like  your  honored  president,  it 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

seems  a  long  and  arduous  path  that  has  been  trodden,  but 
when  you  think  of  the  cumulating  force  of  this  movement 
in  recent  decades,  you  must  agree  with  me  that  it  is  one  of 
the  most  astonishing  tides  in  modern  history.  Two  gener 
ations  ago,  no  doubt  Madam  President  will  agree  with  me  in 
saying,  it  was  a  handful  of  women  who  were  fighting  this 
cause.  Now  it  is  a  great  multitude  of  women  who  are 
fighting  it. 

And  there  are  some  interesting  historical  connections 
which  I  would  like  to  attempt  to  point  out  to  you.  One  of 
the  most  striking  facts  about  the  history  of  the  United 
States  is  that  at  the  outset  it  was  a  lawyers'  history.  Almost 
all  of  the  questions  to  which  America  addressed  itself,  say 
a  hundred  years  ago,  were  legal  questions,  were  questions  of 
method,  not  questions  of  what  you  were  going  to  do  with 
your  Government,  but  questions  of  how  you  were  going  to 
constitute  your  Government — how  you  were  going  to  bal 
ance  the  powers  of  the  States  and  the  Federal  Government, 
how  you  were  going  to  balance  the  claims  of  property 
against  the  processes  of  liberty,  how  you  were  going  to 
make  your  governments  up  so  as  to  balance  the  parts 
against  each  other  so  that  the  legislature  would  check  the 
executive,  and  the  executive  the  legislature,  and  the  courts 
both  of  them  put  together.  The  whole  conception  of  gov 
ernment  when  the  United  States  became  a  Nation  was  a 
mechanical  conception  of  government,  and  the  mechanical 
conception  of  government  which  underlay  it  was  the  New 
tonian  theory  of  the  universe.  If  you  pick  up  the  Federal 
ist,  some  parts  of  it  read  like  a  treatise  on  astronomy  instead 
of  a  treatise  on  government.  They  speak  of  the  centrifugal 
and  the  centripetal  forces,  and  locate  the  President  some 
where  in  a  rotating  system.  The  whole  thing  is  a  calcu 
lation  of  power  and  an  adjustment  of  parts.  There  was  a 
time  when  nobody  but  a  lawyer  could  know  enough  to  run 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  a  distinguished 
English  publicist  once  remarked,  speaking  of  the  com- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

plexity  of  the  American  Government,  that  it  was  no  proof 
of  the  excellence  of  the  American  Constitution  that  it  had 
been  successfully  operated,  because  the  Americans  could 
run  any  constitution.  But  there  have  been  a  great  many 
technical  difficulties  in  running  it. 

And  then  something  happened.  A  great  question  arose 
in  this  country  which,  though  complicated  with  legal  ele 
ments,  was  at  bottom  a  human  question,  and  nothing  but  a 
question  of  humanity.  That  was  the  slavery  question.  And 
is  it  not  significant  that  it  was  then,  and  then  for  the  first 
time,  that  women  became  prominent  in  politics  in  America  ? 
Not  many  women;  those  prominent  in  that  day  were  so 
few  that  you  can  name  them  over  in  a  brief  catalogue,  but, 
nevertheless,  they  then  began  to  play  a  part  in  writing, 
not  only,  but  in  public  speech,  which  was  a  very  novel  part 
for  women  to  play  in  America.  After  the  Civil  War  had 
settled  some  of  what  seemed  to  be  the  most  difficult  legal 
questions  of  our  system,  the  life  of  the  Nation  began  not 
only  to  unfold,  but  to  accumulate.  Life  in  the  United 
States  was  a  comparatively  simple  matter  at  the  time  of  the 
Civil  War.  There  was  none  of  that  underground  struggle 
which  is  now  so  manifest  to  those  who  look  only  a  little 
way  beneath  the  surface.  The  pressure  of  low  wages,  the 
agony  of  obscure  and  unremunerated  toil,  did  not  exist  in 
America  in  anything  like  the  same  proportions  that  they 
exist  now. 

And  as  our  life  has  unfolded  and  accumulated,  as  the 
contacts  of  it  have  become  hot,  as  the  populations  have 
assembled  in  the  cities  and  the  cool  spaces  of  the  country 
have  been  supplanted  by  the  feverish  urban  areas,  the 
whole  nature  of  our  political  questions  has  been  altered. 
They  have  ceased  to  be  legal  questions.  They  have  more 
and  more  become  social  questions,  questions  with  regard  to 
the  relations  of  human  beings  to  one  another — not  merely 
their  legal  relations,  but  their  moral  and  spiritual  relations 
to  one  another.  This  has  been  most  characteristic  of 

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American  life  in  the  last  few  decades,,  and  as  these  ques 
tions  have  assumed  greater  and  greater  prominence,  the 
movement  which  this  association  represents  has  gathered 
cumulative  force.  So  that,  if  anybody  asks  himself,  "What 
does  this  gathering  force  mean,"  if  he  knows  anything  about 
the  history  of  the  country,  he  knows  that  it  means  some 
thing  that  has  not  only  come  to  stay,  but  has  come  with 
conquering  power. 

I  get  a  little  impatient  sometimes  about  the  discussion 
of  the  channels  and  methods  by  which  it  is  to  prevail.  It 
is  going  to  prevail,  and  that  is  a  very  superficial  and  ignor 
ant  view  of  it  which  attributes  it  to  mere  social  unrest.  It 
is  not  merely  because  the  women  are  discontented.  It  is 
because  the  women  have  seen  visions  of  duty,  and  that  is 
something  which  we  not  only  cannot  resist,  but,  if  we  be 
true  Americans,  we  do  not  wish  to  resist.  America  took 
its  origin  in  visions  of  the  human  spirit,  in  aspirations  for 
the  deepest  sort  of  liberty  of  the  mind  and  of  the  heart, 
and  as  visions  of  that  sort  come  up  to  the  sight  of  those 
who  are  spiritually  minded  in  America,  America  comes 
more  and  more  into  her  birthright  and  into  the  perfection 
of  her  development. 

So  that  what  we  have  to  realize  in  dealing  with  forces  of 
this  sort  is  that  we  are  dealing  with  the  substance  of  life 
itself.  I  have  felt  as  I  sat  here  tonight  the  wholesome  con 
tagion  of  the  occasion.  Almost  every  other  time  that  I 
ever  visited  Atlantic  City,  I  came  to  fight  somebody.  I 
hardly  know  how  to  conduct  myself  when  I  have  not  come 
to  fight  against  anybody,  but  with  somebody.  I  have  come 
to  suggest,  among  other  things,  that  when  the  forces  of 
nature  are  steadily  working  and  the  tide  is  rising  to  meet 
the  moon,  you  need  not  be  afraid  that  it  will  not  come  to 
its  flood.  We  feel  the  tide;  we  rejoice  in  the  strength  of 
it;  and  we  shall  not  quarrel  in  the  long  run  as  to  the  method 
of  it.  Because,  when  you  are  working  with  masses  of  men 
and  organized  bodies  of  opinion,  you  have  got  to  carry  the 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

organized  body  along.  The  whole  art  and  practice  of  gov 
ernment  consists,  not  in  moving  individuals,  but  in  moving 
masses.  It  is  all  very  well  to  run  ahead  and  beckon,  but, 
after  all,  you  have  got  to  wait  for  the  body  to  follow.  I 
have  not  come  to  ask  you  to  be  patient,  because  you  have 
been,  but  I  have  come  to  congratulate  you  that  there  was  a 
force  behind  you  that  will  beyond  any  peradventure  be 
triumphant,  and  for  which  you  can  afford  a  little  while  to 
wait. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  ON  THE  RELATION  OP  THE 
UNITED  STATES  TO  THE  BUSINESS  OF  THE  WORLD 

(Delivered  before  the  Grain   Dealers'  Association,   Balti 
more,  September  25,  1916) 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  is  a  matter  of  sincere  gratification  to  me  that  I  can 
come  and  address  an  association  of  this  sort,  and  yet  I 
feel  that  there  is  a  certain  drawback  to  the  present  occa 
sion.  That  drawback  consists  of  the  fact  that  it  occurs  in 
the  midst  of  a  political  campaign.  Nothing  so  seriously 
interrupts  or  interferes  with  the  sober  and  sincere  consid 
eration  of  public  questions  as  a  political  campaign.  I  want 
to  say  to  you  at  the  outset  that  I  believe  in  party  action, 
but  that  I  have  a  supreme  contempt  for  partisan  action; 
that  I  believe  that  it  is  necessary  for  men  to  concert  meas 
ures  together  in  organized  cooperation  by  party,  but  that 
whenever  party  feeling  touches  any  one  of  the  passions 
that  work  against  the  general  interest,  it  is  altogether  to 
be  condemned.  Therefore,  I  feel  that  on  occasions  like 
this  we  should  divest  ourselves  of  the  consciousness  that  we 
are  in  the  midst  of  a  political  campaign.  .  .  . 

What  I  have  come  to  say  to  you  today,  therefore,  I 
would  wish  to  say  in  an  atmosphere  from  which  all  the 
vapors  of  passion  have  been  cleared  away,  for  I  want  to 

327 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

speak  to  you  about  the  business  situation  of  the  world,  so 
far  as  America  is  concerned.  I  am  not  going  to  take  the 
liberty  of  discussing  that  business  situation  from  the  spe 
cial  point  of  view  of  your  association,  because  I  know  that 
I  would  be  bringing  coals  to  Newcastle.  I  know  that  I  am 
speaking  to  men  who  understand  the  relation  of  the  grain 
business  to  the  business  of  the  world  very  much  better  than 
I  do;  and  I  know  that  it  is  true  that,  except  under  very 
unusual  circumstances  such  as  have  existed  in  the  imme 
diate  past,  the  export  of  grain  from  this  country  has  been 
a  diminishing  part  of  our  foreign  commerce  rather  than  an 
increasing  part;  that  the  increase  of  our  own  population — 
the  decrease  in  proportion  to  that  increase,  of  our  produc 
tion  of  grains — has  been  rendering  the  question  of  foreign 
markets  less  important,  though  still  very  important,  than  it 
was  in  past  generations,  so  far  as  the  dealing  in  grain  is 
concerned.  I  also  remember,  however,  that  we  have  only 
begun  in  this  country  the  process  by  which  the  full  produc 
tion  of  our  agricultural  acreage  is  to  be  obtained.  The 
agricultural  acreage  of  this  country  ought  to  produce  twice 
what  it  is  now  producing,  and  under  the  stimulation  and  in 
struction  which  have  recently  been  characteristic  of  agri 
cultural  development  I  think  we  can  confidently  predict 
that  within,  let  us  say,  a  couple  of  decades,  the  agricul 
tural  production  of  this  country  will  be  something  like 
double,  whereas,  there  is  no  likelihood  that  the  population 
of  this  country  will  be  doubled  within  the  same  period. 
You  can  look  forward,  therefore,  it  seems  to  me,  with  some 
degree  of  confidence  to  an  increasing,  and  perhaps  a  rap 
idly  increasing,  volume  of  the  products  in  which  you  deal. 
But,  as  I  have  said,  I  have  not  come  to  discuss  that.  I 
have  come  to  discuss  the  general  relation  of  the  United 
States  to  the  business  of  the  world  in  the  decades  immedi 
ately  ahead  of  us.  We  have  swung  out,  my  fellow  citizens, 
into  a  new  business  era  in  America.  I  suppose  that  there  is 
no  man  connected  with  your  association  who  does  not  re- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

member  the  time  when  the  whole  emphasis  of  American 
business  discussion  was  laid  upon  the  domestic  market.  I 
need  not  remind  you  how  recently  it  has  happened  that  our 
attention  has  been  extended  to  the  markets  of  the  world; 
much  less  recently,  I  need  not  say,  in  the  matters  with 
which  you  are  concerned  than  in  the  other  export  interests 
of  the  country.  But  it  happened  that  American  production, 
not  only  in  the  agricultural  field  and  in  mining  and  in  all 
the  natural  products  of  the  earth,  but  also  in  manufacture, 
increased  in  recent  years  to  such  a  volume  that  American 
business  burst  its  jacket.  It  could  not  any  longer  be  taken 
care  of  within  the  field  of  the  domestic  markets ;  and  when 
that  began  to  disclose  itself  as  the  situation,  we  also  became 
aware  that  American  business  men  had  not  studied  foreign 
markets,  that  they  did  not  know  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
and  that  they  did  not  have  the  ships  in  which  to  take  their 
proportionate  part  in  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world ;  that 
our  merchant  marine  had  sunk  to  a  negligible  amount,  and 
that  it  had  sunk  to  its  lowest  at  the  very  time  when  the 
tide  of  our  exports  began  to  grow  in  most  formidable 
volume. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  circumstances  of  our  business 
history  is  this:  The  banking  laws  of  the  United  States — I 
mean  the  Federal  banking  laws — did  not  put  the  national 
banks  in  a  position  to  do  foreign  exchange  under  favorable 
conditions,  and  it  was  actually  true  that  private  banks,  and 
sometimes  branch  banks  drawn  out  of  other  countries, 
notably  out  of  Canada,  were  established  at  our  chief  ports 
to  do  what  American  bankers  ought  to  have  done.  It  was 
as  if  America  was  not  only  unaccustomed  to  touching  all 
the  nerves  of  the  world's  business,  but  was  disinclined  to 
touch  them,  and  had  not  prepared  the  instrumentality  by 
which  it  might  take  part  in  the  great  commerce  of  the  round 
globe.  Only  in  very  recent  years  have  we  been  even 
studying  the  problem  of  providing  ourselves  with  the  instru 
mentalities. 

S29 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Not  until  the  recent  legislation  of  Congress  known  as  the 
Federal  Reserve  Act  were  the  federal  banks  of  this  country 
given  the  proper  equipment  through  which  they  could  assist 
American  commerce,  not  only  in  our  own  country,  but  in 
any  part  of  the  world  where  they  chose  to  set  up  branch 
institutions.  British  banks  had  been  serving  British  mer 
chants  all  over  the  world,  German  banks  had  been  serving 
German  merchants  all  over  the  world,  and  no  national  bank 
of  the  United  States  had  been  serving  American  merchants 
anywhere  in  tin  world  except  in  the  United  States.  We 
had,  as  it  were,  deliberately  refrained  from  playing  our 
part  in  the  field  in  which  we  prided  ourselves  that  we  were 
most  ambitious  and  most  expert,  the  field  of  manufacture 
and  of  commerce.  All  that  is  past,  and  the  scene  has  been 
changed  by  the  events  of  the  last  two  years,  almost  sud 
denly,  and  with  a  completeness  that  almost  daunts  the  plan 
ning  mind.  Not  only  when  this  war  is  over,  but  now, 
America  has  her  place  in  the  world  and  must  take  her 
place  in  the  world  of  finance  and  commerce  upon  a  scale 
that  she  never  dreamed- of  before. 

My  dream  is  that  she  will  take  her  place  in  that  great 
field  in  a  new  spirit  which  the  world  has  never  seen  before ; 
not  the  spirit  of  those  who  would  exclude  others,  but  the 
spirit  of  those  who  would  excel  others.  I  want  to  see 
America  pitted  against  the  world,  not  in  selfishness,  but 
in  brains.  .  .  . 

What  instrumentalities  have  we  provided  ourselves  with 
in  order  that  we  may  be  equipped  with  knowledge?  There 
has  been  an  instrumentality  in  operation  for  four  or  five 
years  of  which,  strangely  enough,  American  business  men 
have  only  slowly  become  aware.  Some  four  or  five  years 
ago  the  Congress  established,  in  connection  with  the  de 
partment  which  was  then  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor (  now  the  Department  of  Commerce)  a  Bureau  of 
Foreign  and  Domestic  Commerce,  and  one  of  the  advan 
tages  which  the  American  Government  has  derived  from 

330 


Woodrow    Wilson 

that  bureau  is  that  it  has  been  able  to  hire  brains  for  much- 
less  than  the  brains  were  worth.  It  is  in  a  way  a  national 
discredit  to  us,  my  fellow  citizens,  that  we  are  paying 
studious  men,  capable  of  understanding  anything  and  of 
conducting  any  business,  just  about  one-third  of  what  they 
could  command  in  the  field  of  business ;  and  it  is  one  of  the 
admirable  circumstances  of  American  life  that  they  are 
proud  to  serve  the  Government  on  a  pittance.  There  are 
such  men  in  the  Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domestic  Com 
merce.  They  have  been  studying  the  foreign  commerce  of 
this  country  as  it  was  never  studied  before,  and  have  been 
making  reports  so  comprehensive  and  so  thorough  that  they 
compare  to  their  great  advantage  with  the  reports  of  any 
similar  bureau  of  any  other  government  in  the  world,  and 
I  have  found  to  my  amazement  that  some  of  the  best  of 
those  reports  seem  never  to  have  been  read.  .  .  . 

And  then,  in  addition  to  that,  there  was  recently  created 
the  Federal  Trade  Commission.  It  is  hard  to  describe  the 
functions  of  that  commission;  all  I  can  say  is  that  it  has 
transformed  the  Government  of  the  United  States  from 
being  an  antagonist  of  business  into  being  a  friend  of  busi 
ness.  A  few  years  ago  American  business  men — I  think 
you  will  corroborate  this  statement — took  up  their  morning 
paper  with  some  degree  of  nervousness  to  see  what  the  Gov 
ernment  was  doing  to  them.  I  ask  you  if  you  take  up  the 
morning  paper  now  with  any  degree  of  nervousness?  And 
I  ask  you  if  you  have  not  found,  those  of  you  who  have 
dealt  with  it  all,  the  Federal  Trade  Commission  to  be  put 
there  to  show  you  the  way  in  which  the  Government  can 
help  you  and  not  the  way  in  which  the  Government  can 
hinder  you? 

But  that  is  not  the  matter  that  I  am  most  interested  in. 
It  has  always  been  a  fiction — I  don't  know  who  invented 
it  or  why  he  invented  it — that  there  was  a  contest  between 
the  law  and  business.  There  has  always  been  a  contest  in 
every  government  between  the  law  and  bad  business,  and  I 

331 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

do  not  want  to  see  that  contest  softened  in  any  way;  but 
there  has  never  been  any  contest  between  men  who  intended 
the  right  thing  and  the  men  who  administered  the  law. 
But  what  I  want  to  speak  about  is  this :  One  of  the  functions 
of  the  Federal  Trade  Commission  is  to  inquire  with  the 
fullest  powers  ever  conferred  upon  a  similar  commission  in 
this  country  into  all  the  circumstances  of  American  busi 
ness  for  the  purpose  of  doing  for  American  business  ex 
actly  what  the  Department  of  Agriculture  has  so  long  and 
with  increasing  efficiency  done  for  the  farmer,  inform  the 
American  business  man  of  every  element,  big  and  little, 
with  which  it  is  his  duty  to  deal.  Here  are  created  search 
ing  eyes  of  inquiry  to  do  the  very  thing  that  it  was  impera 
tively  necessary  and  immediately  necessary  that  the  coun 
try  should  do — look  upon  the  field  of  business  and  know 
what  was  going  on! 

And  then,  in  the  third  place,  you  know  that  we  have  just 
now  done  what  it  was  common  sense  to  do  about  the  tariff. 
We  have  not  put  this  into  words,  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
put  it  into  words:  We  have  admitted  that  on  the  one  side 
and  on  the  other  we  were  talking  theories  and  managing 
policies  without  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  facts  upon 
which  we  were  acting,  and,  therefore,  we  have  established 
what  is  intended  to  be  a  non-partisan  Tariff  Commission  to 
study  the  conditions  with  which  legislation  has  to  deal  in 
the  matter  of  the  relations  of  American  with  foreign  busi 
ness  transactions.  Another  eye  created  to  see  the 
facts!  .  .  .  The  Tariff  Commission  is  going  to  look  for 
the  facts  no  matter  who  is  hurt.  We  are  creating  one  after 
another  the  instrumentalities  of  knowledge,  so  that  the 
business  men  of  this  country  shall  know  what  the  field  of 
the  world's  business  is  and  deal  with  that  field  upon  that 
knowledge. 

Then,  when  the  knowledge  is  obtained,  what  are  we  going 
to  do?  One  of  the  things  that  interests  me  most  about  an 
association  of  this  sort  is  that  the  intention  of  it  is  that 


Woodrow    Wilson 

the  members  should  share  a  common  body  of  information, 
and  that  they  should  concert  among  themselves  those  oper 
ations  of  business  which  are  beneficial  to  all  of  them;  that, 
instead  of  a  large  number  of  dealers  in  grain  acting  sepa 
rately  and  each  fighting  for  his  own  hand,  you  are  willing 
to  come  together  and  study  the  problem  as  if  you  were 
partners  and  brothers  and  cooperators  in  this  field  of  busi 
ness.  That  has  been  going  on  in  every  occupation  in  the 
United  States  of  any  consequence.  .  .  .  We  must  cooper 
ate  in  the  whole  field  of  business,  the  Government  with  the 
merchant,  the  merchant  with  his  employee,  the  whole  body 
of  producers  with  the  whole  body  of  consumers,  to  see  that 
the  right  things  are  produced  in  the  right  volume  and  find 
the  right  purchasers  at  the  right  place,  and  that,  all  work 
ing  together,  we  realize  that  nothing  can  be  for  the  indi 
vidual  benefit  which  is  not  for  the  common  benefit. 

You  know  that  there  was  introduced  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  recently  a  bill,  commonly  called  the  Webb 
bill,  for  the  purpose  of  stating  it  as  the  policy  of  the  law 
of  the  United  States  that  nothing  in  the  anti-trust  laws 
now  existing  should  be  interpreted  to  interfere  with  the 
proper  sort  of  cooperation  among  exporters.  The  foreign 
field  is  not  like  the  domestic  field.  The  foreign  field  is  full 
of  combinations  meant  to  be  exclusive.  The  anti-trust  laws 
of  the  United  States  are  intended  to  prevent  any  kind  of 
combination  in  the  United  States  which  shall  be  exclusive 
of  new  enterprises  within  the  United  States,  any  combina 
tion  which  shall  set  up  monopoly  in  America;  but  the  ex 
port  business  is  a  very  big  business,  a  very  complicated 
business,  a  very  expensive  business,  and  it  ought  to  be  pos 
sible,  and  it  will  be  possible  and  legal,  for  men  engaged  in 
exporting  to  get  together  and  manage  it  in  groups,  so  that 
they  can  manage  it  at  an  advantage  instead  of  at  a  disad 
vantage  as  compared  with  foreign  rivals.  Not  for  the  pur 
pose  of  exclusive  and  monopolistic  combination,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  cooperation,  and  there  is  a  very  wide  difference 

833 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

there.  I  for  myself  despise  monopoly,  and  I  have  an  en 
thusiasm  for  cooperation.  By  cooperation  I  mean  working 
along  with  anybody  who  is  willing  to  work  along  with  you 
under  definite  understandings  and  arrangements  which  will 
constitute  a  sound  business  programme.  There  can  be  no 
jealousy  of  that,  and  if  there  had  been  time,  I  can  say  with 
confidence  that  this  bill,  which  passed  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  would  have  passed  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  also.  So  that  any  obstacle  that  ingenious  lawyers 
may  find  in  the  anti-trust  laws  will  be  removed.  .  .  . 

And  then  there  must  be  cooperation,  not  only  between  the 
Government  and  the  business  men,  but  between  business 
men.  Shippers  must  cooperate,  and  they  ought  to  be  study 
ing  right  now  how  to  cooperate.  There  are  a  great  many 
gentlemen  in  other  countries  who  can  show  them  how !  They 
ought  to  look  forward,  particularly,  to  caring  for  this  mat 
ter,  that  they  have  vehicles  in  which  to  carry  their  goods. 
We  must  address  ourselves  immediately  and  as  rapidly  as 
possible  to  the  re-creation  of  a  great  American  merchant 
marine.  Our  present  situation  is  very  like  this:  Suppose 
that  a  man  who  had  a  great  department  store  did  not  have 
any  delivery  wagons  and  depended  upon  his  competitors  in 
the  same  market  to  deliver  his  goods  to  his  customers.  You 
know  what  would  happen.  They  would  deliver  their  own 
goods  first  and  quickest,  and  they  would  deliver  yours  only 
if  yours  were  to  be  delivered  upon  the  routes  followed  by 
their  wagons.  That  is  an  exact  picture  of  what  is  taking 
place  in  our  foreign  trade  at  this  minute.  Foreign  vessels 
carry  our  goods  where  they,  the  foreign  vessels,  happen  to 
be  going,  and  they  carry  them  only  if  they  have  room  in 
addition  to  what  they  are  carrying  for  other  people.  You 
can  not  conduct  trade  that  way.  That  is  conducting  trade 
on  sufferance.  That  is  conducting  trade  on  an  "if  you 
please."  That  is  conducting  trade  on  the  basis  of  service 
the  point  of  view  of  which  is  not  your  advantage.  There 
fore,  we  can  not  lose  any  time  in  getting  delivery  wagons. 

SS4 


Woodrow    Wilson 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  discussion  about  this  re 
cently,  and  it  has  been  said,  "The  Government  must  not 
take  any  direct  part  in  this.  You  must  let  private  capital 
do  it,"  and  the  reply  was,  "All  right,  go  ahead."  "Oh,  but 
we  will  not  go  ahead  unless  you  help  us."  We  said,  "Very 
well,  then,  we  will  go  ahead,  but  we  will  not  need  your 
help,  because  we  do  not  want  to  compete  where  you  are 
already  doing  the  carrying  business,  but  where  you  are  not 
doing  the  carrying  business  and  it  has  to  be  done  for  some 
time  at  a  loss.  We  will  undertake  to  do  it  at  a  loss  until  that 
route  is  established,  and  we  will  give  place  to  private  capital 
whenever  private  capital  is  ready  to  take  the  place."  That 
sounds  like  a  very  reasonable  proposition.  "We  will  carry 
your  goods  one  way  when  we  have  to  come  back  empty  the 
other  way  and  lose  money  on  the  voyage,  and  when  there 
are  cargoes  both  ways  and  it  is  profitable  to  carry  them,  we 
shall  not  insist  upon  carrying  them  any  longer." 

And  it  is  absolutely  necessary  now  to  make  good  our 
new  connections.  Our  new  connections  are  with  the  great 
and  rich  Republics  to  the  south  of  us.  For  the  first  time 
in  my  recollection  they  are  beginning  to  trust  and  believe 
in  us  and  want  us,  and  one  of  my  chief  concerns  has  been 
to  see  that  nothing  was  done  that  did  not  show  friendship 
and  good  faith  on  our  part.  You  know  that  it  used  to  be 
the  case  that  if  you  wanted  to  travel  comfortably  in  your 
own  person  from  New  York  to  a  South  American  port,  you 
had  to  go  by  way  of  England  or  else  stow  yourself  away  in 
some  uncomfortable  fashion  in  a  ship  that  took  almost  as 
long  to  go  straight,  and  within  whose  bowels  you  got  in 
such  a  temper  before  you  got  there  that  you  did  not  care 
whether  she  got  there  or  not.  The  great  interesting  geo 
graphical  fact  to  me  is  that  by  the  opening  of  the  Panama 
Canal  there  is  a  straight  line  south  from  New  York  through 
the  canal  to  the  western  coast  of  South  America,  which 
hitherto  has  been  one  of  the  most  remote  coasts  in  the 
world  so  far  as  we  were  concerned.  The  west  coast  of 

8S5 


Presidential  Messages f  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

South  America  is  now  nearer  to  us  than  the  eastern  coast  of 
South  America  ever  was,  though  we  have  the  open  Atlantic 
upon  which  to  approach  the  east  coast.  Here  is  the  loom 
all  ready  upon  which  to  spread  the  threads  which  can  be 
worked  into  a  fabric  of  friendship  and  wealth  such  as  we 
have  never  known  before !  .  .  . 

We  have  got  to  have  the  knowledge,  we  have  got  to  have 
the  cooperation,  and  then  back  of  all  that  has  got  to  lie 
what  America  has  in  abundance  and  only  has  to  release,  that 
is  to  say,  the  self-reliant  enterprise. 

There  is  only  one  thing  I  have  ever  been  ashamed  of 
about  in  America,  and  that  was  the  timidity  and  fearfulness 
of  Americans  in  the  presence  of  foreign  competitors.  I 
have  dwelt  among  Americans  all  my  life  and  am  an  intense 
absorbent  of  the  atmosphere  of  America,  and  I  know  by 
personal  experience  that  there  are  as  effective  brains  in 
America  as  anywhere  in  the  world.  An  American  afraid  to 
pit  American  business  men  against  any  competitors  any 
where  !  Enterprise,  the  shrewdness  which  Americans  have 
shown,  the  knowledge  of  business  which  they  have  shown, 
all  these  things  are  going  to  make  for  that  peaceful  and 
honorable  conquest  of  foreign  markets  which  is  our  reason 
able  ambition.  . 


[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  election  on  November  7  resulted 
in  the  choice  of  Woodrow  Wilson  for  a  second  term,  with 
276  votes  in  the  Electoral  College  to  255  for  Charles  E. 
Hughes,  the  Republican  candidate.  In  addition  to  the  solid 
South,  the  President  carried  most  of  the  West  and  several 
States  in  the  East.  The  principal  Democratic  claim  for 
support  was  that  Wilson  had  "kept  us  out  of  war."] 


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Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  FOURTH  ANNUAL  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS 
(Delivered  in  Joint  Session,  December  5,  1916) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

In  fulfilling  at  this  time  the  duty  laid  upon  me  by  the 
Constitution  of  communicating  to  you  from  time  to  time 
information  of  the  state  of  the  Union  and  recommending 
to  your  consideration  such  legislative  measures  as  may  be 
judged  necessary  and  expedient  I  shall  continue  the  prac 
tice,  which  I  hope  has  been  acceptable  to  you,  of  leaving 
to  the  reports  of  the  several  heads  of  the  executive  depart 
ments  the  elaboration  of  the  detailed  needs  of  the  public 
service  and  confine  myself  to  those  matters  of  more  gen 
eral  public  policy  with  which  it  seems  necessary  and  feasible 
to  deal  at  the  present  session  of  the  Congress. 

I  realize  the  limitations  of  time  under  which  you  will 
necessarily  act  at  this  session  and  shall  make  my  sugges 
tions  as  few  as  possible;  but  there  were  some  things  left 
undone  at  the  last  session  which  there  will  now  be  time  to 
complete  and  which  it  seems  necessary  in  the  interest  of 
the  public  to  do  at  once. 

In  the  first  place,  it  seems  to  me  imperatively  necessary 
that  the  earliest  possible  consideration  and  action  should 
be  accorded  the  remaining  measures  of  the  programme  of 
settlement  and  regulation  which  I  had  occasion  to  recom 
mend  to  you  at  the  close  of  your  last  session  in  view  of  the 
public  dangers  disclosed  by  the  unaccommodated  difficulties 
which  then  existed,  and  which  still  unhappily  continue  to 
exist,  between  the  railroads  of  the  country  and  their  locomo 
tive  engineers,  conductors,  and  trainmen. 

I  then  recommended: 

First,  immediate  provision  for  the  enlargement  and  ad 
ministrative  reorganization  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  along  the  lines  embodied  in  the  bill  recently 
passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives  and  now  awaiting 
action  by  the  Senate;  in  order  that  the  Commission  may 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

be  enabled  to  deal  with  the  many  great  and  various  duties 
now  devolving  upon  it  with  a  promptness  and  thoroughness 
which  are,  with  its  present  constitution  and  means  of  action, 
practically  impossible. 

Second,  the  establishment  of  an  eight-hour  day  as  the 
legal  basis  alike  of  work  and  of  wages  in  the  employment 
of  all  railway  employees  who  are  actually  engaged  in  the 
work  of  operating  trains  in  interstate  transportation. 

Third,  the  authorization  of  the  appointment  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  a  small  body  of  men  to  observe  the  actual  results 
in  experience  of  the  adoption  of  the  eight-hour  day  in  rail 
way  transportation  alike  for  the  men  and  for  the  railroads. 

Fourth,  explicit  approval  by  the  Congress  of  the  consid 
eration  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  of  an  in 
crease  of  freight  rates  to  meet  such  additional  expenditures 
by  the  railroads  as  may  have  been  rendered  necessary  by 
the  adoption  of  the  eight-hour  day  and  which  have  not  been 
offset  by  administrative  readjustments  and  economies,, 
should  the  facts  disclosed  justify  the  increase. 

Fifth,  an  amendment  of  the  existing  federal  statute  which 
provides  for  the  mediation,  conciliation,  and  arbitration  of 
such  controversies  as  the  present  by  adding  to  it  a  provision 
that,  in  case  the  methods  of  accommodation  now  provided 
for  should  fail,  a  full  public  investigation  of  the  merits 
of  every  such  dispute  shall  be  instituted  and  completed 
before  a  strike  or  lockout  may  lawfully  be  attempted. 

And,  sixth,  the  lodgment  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive 
of  the  power,  in  case  of  military  necessity,  to  take  control 
of  such  portions  and  such  rolling  stock  of  the  railways  of 
the  country  as  may  be  required  for  military  use  and  to  op 
erate  them  for  military  purposes,  with  authority  to  draft 
into  the  military  service  of  the  United  States  such  train 
crews  and  administrative  officials  as  the  circumstances  re 
quire  for  their  safe  and  efficient  use. 

The  second  and  third  of  these  recommendations  the  Con 
gress  immediately  acted  on:  it  established  the  eight-hour 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

day  as  the  legal  basis  of  work  and  wages  in  train  service 
and  it  authorized  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  ob 
serve  and  report  upon  the  practical  results,  deeming  these 
the  measures  most  immediately  needed;  but  it  postponed 
action  upon  the  other  suggestions  until  an  opportunity 
should  be  offered  for  a  more  deliberate  consideration  of 
them.  The  fourth  recommendation  I  do  not  deem  it  neces 
sary  to  renew.  The  power  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  to  grant  an  increase  of  rates  on  the  ground  re 
ferred  to  is  indisputably  clear  and  a  recommendation  by 
the  Congress  with  regard  to  such  a  matter  might  seem  to 
draw  in  question  the  scope  of  the  Commission's  authority 
or  its  inclination  to  do  justice  when  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  either. 

The  other  suggestions, — the  increase  in  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission's  membership  and  in  its  facilities 
for  performing  its  manifold  duties,  the  provision  for  full 
public  investigation  and  assessment  of  industrial  disputes, 
and  the  grant  to  the  Executive  of  the  power  to  control  and 
operate  the  railways  when  necessary  in  time  of  war  or 
other  like  public  necessity, — I  now  very  earnestly  renew. 

The  necessity  for  such  legislation  is  manifest  and  press 
ing.  Those  who  have  entrusted  us  with  the  responsibility 
and  duty  of  serving  and  safeguarding  them  in  such  matters 
would  find  it  hard,  I  believe,  to  excuse  a  failure  to  act  upon 
these  grave  matters  or  any  unnecessary  postponement  of 
action  upon  them. 

Not  only  does  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
now  find  it  practically  impossible,  with  its  present  member 
ship  and  organization,  to  perform  its  great  functions 
promptly  and  thoroughly  but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  it  may 
presently  be  found  advisable  to  add  to  its  duties  still  others 
equally  heavy  and  exacting.  It  must  first  be  perfected  as 
an  administrative  instrument. 

The  country  cannot  and  should  not  consent  to  remain 
any  longer  exposed  to  profound  industrial  disturbances  for 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

lack  of  additional  means  of  arbitration  and  conciliation 
which  the  Congress  can  easily  and  promptly  supply.  And 
all  will  agree  that  there  must  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  power 
of  the  Executive  to  make  immediate  and  uninterrupted  use 
of  the  railroads  for  the  concentration  of  the  military  forces 
of  the  nation  wherever  they  are  needed  and  whenever  they 
are  needed. 

This  is  a  programme  of  regulation,  prevention,  and  ad 
ministrative  efficiency  which  argues  its  own  case  in  the  mere 
statement  of  it.  With  regard  to  one  of  its  items,  the  in 
crease  in  the  efficiency  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis 
sion,  the  House  of  Representatives  has  already  acted;  its 
action  needs  only  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate. 

I  would  hesitate  to  recommend,  and  I  dare  say  the  Con 
gress  would  hesitate  to  act  upon  the  suggestion  should  I 
make  it,  that  any  man  in  any  occupation  should  be  obliged 
by  law  to  continue  in  an  employment  which  he  desired  to 
leave.  To  pass  a  law  which  forbade  or  prevented  the  in 
dividual  workman  to  leave  his  work  before  receiving  the 
approval  of  society  in  doing  so  would  be  to  adopt  a  new 
principle  into  our  jurisprudence  which  I  take  it  for  granted 
we  are  not  prepared  to  introduce.  But  the  proposal  that 
the  operation  of  the  railways  of  the  country  shall  not  be 
stopped  or  interrupted  by  the  concerted  action  of  organ 
ized  bodies  of  men  until  a  public  investigation  shall  have 
been  instituted  which  shall  make  the  whole  question  at  issue 
plain,  for  the  judgment  of  the  opinion  of  the  nation  is  not 
to  propose  any  such  principle.  It  is  based  upon  the  very 
different  principle  that  the  concerted  action  of  powerful 
bodies  of  men  shall  not  be  permitted  to  stop  the  industrial 
processes  of  the  nation,  at  any  rate  before  the  nation  shall 
have  had  an  opportunity  to  acquaint  itself  with  the  merits 
of  the  case  as  between  employee  and  employer,  time  to 
form  its  opinion  upon  an  impartial  statement  of  the  merits., 
and  opportunity  to  consider  all  practicable  means  of  con 
ciliation  or  arbitration.  I  can  see  nothing  in  that  pror»o«i- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

tion  but  the  justifiable  safeguarding  by  society  of  the  nee 
essary  processes  of  its  very  life.  There  is  nothing  arbitrary 
or  unjust  in  it  unless  it  be  arbitrarily  and  unjustly  done. 
It  can  and  should  be  done  with  a  full  and  scrupulous  re 
gard  for  the  interests  and  liberties  of  all  concerned  as  well 
as  for  the  permanent  interests  of  society  itself. 

Three  matters  of  capital  importance  await  the  action 
of  the  Senate  which  have  already  been  acted  upon  by  the 
House  of  Representatives:  the  bill  which  seeks  to  extend 
greater  freedom  of  combination  to  those  engaged  in  pro 
moting  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  country  than  is  now 
thought  by  some  to  be  legal  under  the  terms  of  the  laws 
against  monopoly;  the  bill  amending  the  present  organic 
law  of  Porto  Rico;  and  the  bill  proposing  a  more  thorough 
and  systematic  regulation  of  the  expenditure  of  money  in 
elections,  commonly  called  the  Corrupt  Practices  Act.  I 
need  not  labor  my  advice  that  these  measures  be  enacted 
into  law.  Their  urgency  lies  in  the  manifest  circumstances 
which  render  their  adoption  at  this  time  not  only  oppor 
tune  but  necessary.  Even  delay  would  seriously  jeopard 
the  interests  of  the  country  and  of  the  government. 

Immediate  passage  of  the  bill  to  regulate  the  expendi 
ture  of  money  in  elections  may  seem  to  be  less  necessary 
than  the  immediate  enactment  of  the  other  measures  to 
which  I  refer ;  because  at  least  two  years  will  elapse  before 
another  election  in  which  federal  offices  are  to  be  filled; 
but  it  would  greatly  relieve  the  public  mind  if  this  impor 
tant  matter  were  dealt  with  while  the  circumstances  and 
the  dangers  to  the  public  morals  of  the  present  method  of 
obtaining  and  spending  campaign  funds  stand  clear  under 
recent  observation  and  the  methods  of  expenditure  can  be 
frankly  studied  in  the  light  of  present  experience;  and  a 
delay  would  have  the  further  very  serious  disadvantage  of 
postponing  action  until  another  election  was  at  hand  and 
some  special  object  connected  with  it  might  be  thought  to 
be  in  the  mind  of  those  who  urged  it.  Action  can  be  taken 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

now  with  facts  for  guidance  and  without  suspicion  of  parti 
san  purpose. 

I  shall  not  argue  at  length  the  desirability  of  giving  a 
freer  hand  in  the  matter  of  combined  and  concerted  effort 
to  those  who  shall  undertake  the  essential  enterprise  of 
building  up  our  export  trade.  That  enterprise  will  pres 
ently,  will  immediately  assume,  has  indeed  already  as 
sumed,  a  magnitude  unprecedented  in  our  experience.  We 
have  not  the  necessary  instrumentalities  for  its  prosecution ; 
it  is  deemed  to  be  doubtful  whether  they  could  be  created 
upon  an  adequate  scale  under  our  present  laws.  We  should 
clear  away  all  legal  obstacles  and  create  a  basis  of  un 
doubted  law  for  it  which  will  give  freedom  without  permit 
ting  unregulated  license.  The  thing  must  be  done  now,  be 
cause  the  opportunity  is  here  and  may  escape  us  if  we 
hesitate  or  delay. 

The  argument  for  the  proposed  amendments  of  the  or 
ganic  law  of  Porto  Rico  is  brief  and  conclusive.  The  pres 
ent  laws  governing  the  Island  and  regulating  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  its  people  are  not  just.  We  have  created 
expectations  of  extended  privilege  which  we  have  not  sat 
isfied.  There  is  uneasiness  among  the  people  of  the  Island 
and  even  a  suspicious  doubt  with  regard  to  our  intentions 
concerning  them  which  the  adoption  of  the  pending  measure 
would  happily  remove.  We  do  not  doubt  what  we  wish 
to  do  in  any  essential  particular.  We  ought  to  do  it  at 
once. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  Congress  a  bill  was  passed  by 
the  Senate  which  provides  for  the  promotion  of  vocational 
and  industrial  education  which  is  of  vital  importance  to  the 
whole  country  because  it  concerns  a  matter,  too  long  neg 
lected,  upon  which  the  thorough  industrial  preparation  of 
the  country  for  the  critical  years  of  economic  development 
immediately  ahead  of  us  in  very  large  measure  depends. 
May  I  not  urge  its  early  and  favourable  consideration  by 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  its  early  enactment  into 


Woodrow    Wilson 

law?  It  contains  plans  which  affect  all  interests  and  all 
parts  of  the  country,  and  I  am  sure  that  there  is  no  legis 
lation  now  pending  before  the  Congress  whose  passage 
the  country  awaits  with  more  thoughtful  approval  or  greater 
impatience  to  see  a  great  and  admirable  thing  set  in  the 
way  of  being  done. 

There  are  other  matters  already  advanced  to  the  stage  of 
conference  between  the  two  Houses  of  which  it  is  not  nec 
essary  that  I  should  speak.  Some  practicable  basis  of 
agreement  concerning  them  will  no  doubt  be  found  and  ac 
tion  taken  upon  them. 

Inasmuch  as  this  is,  Gentlemen,  probably  the  last  occa 
sion  I  shall  have  to  address  the  Sixty-fourth  Congress,  I 
hope  that  you  will  permit  me  to  say  with  what  genuine 
pleasure  and  satisfaction  I  have  cooperated  with  you  in 
the  many  measures  of  constructive  policy  with  which  you 
have  enriched  the  legislative  annals  of  the  country.  It 
has  been  a  privilege  to  labour  in  such  company.  I  take  the 
liberty  of  congratulating  you  upon  the  completion  of  a  rec 
ord  of  rare  serviceableness  and  distinction. 


WILSON'S    NOTE    TO    THE    BELLIGERENT    GOVERNMENTS, 

SUGGESTING  THAT  RESPECTIVE  PEACE  TERMS 

BE  STATED 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  On  December  12,  1916,  Germany  had 
made  formal  proposal  "to  enter  forthwith  into  peace  nego 
tiations/'  For  more  than  two  years  the  Teutonic  Allies  had 
maintained  unbroken  their  line  in  France  and  Belgium,  and 
were  then  also  in  possession  of  Poland,  Serbia,  Montenegro, 
and  half  of  the  newest  belligerent  country,  Rumania.  The 
Entente  Powers  each  rejected  the  German  peace  proposal 
as  insincere,  arrogant,  and  a  proof  of  weakness.  President 
Wilson,  however,  as  head  of  the  leading  neutral  nation — 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

believed  the  occasion  opportune  for  making  certain  peace 
proposals  of  his  own,  which  he  was  understood  to  have  for 
mulated  some  time  previously.  His  note,  sent  to  all  the 
belligerents,  is  as  follows:] 

Department  of  State, 
Washington,   D.   C.,  Dec.    18,   1916. 

The  President  directs  me  to  send  you  the  following  com 
munication  to  be  presented  immediately  to  the  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Government  to  which  you  are  accred 
ited: 

The  President  of  the  United  States  has  instructed  me  lo 
suggest  to  the  [here  is  inserted  a  designation  of  the  Gov 
ernment  addressed]  a  course  of  action  with  regard  to  the 
present  war,  which  he  hopes  that  the  Government  will  take 
under  consideration  as  suggested  in  the  most  friendly  spirit, 
and  as  coming  not  only  from  a  friend  but  also  as  coming 
from  the  representative  of  a  neutral  nation  whose  interests 
have  been  most  seriously  affected  by  the  war  and  whose 
concern  for  its  early  conclusion  arises  out  of  a  manifest  ne 
cessity  to  determine  how  best  to  safeguard  those  interests  if 
the  war  is  to  continue. 

[The  third  paragraph  of  the  note  as  sent  to  the  four  Central 
Powers — Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  Turkey,  and  Bulgaria — is  as 
follows:] 

The  suggestion  which  I  am  instructed  to  make  the  Presi 
dent  has  long  had  it  in  mind  to  offer.  He  is  somewhat  em 
barrassed  to  offer  it  at  this  particular  time,  because  it  may 
now  seem  to  have  been  prompted  by  a  desire  to  play  a  part 
in  connection  with  the  recent  overtures  of  the  Central  Pow 
ers.  It  has,  in  fact,  been  in  no  way  suggested  by  them  in 
its  origin,  and  the  President  would  have  delayed  offering  it 
until  those  overtures  had  been  independently  answered  but 
for  the  fact  that  it  also  concerns  the  questions  of  peace  and 
may  best  be  considered  in  connection  with  other  proposals 


Woodrow    Wilson 

which  have  the  same  end  in  view.  The  President  can  only 
beg  that  his  suggestion  be  considered  entirely  on  its  own 
merits  and  as  if  it  had  been  made  in  other  circumstances. 

[The  third  paragraph  of  the  note  as  sent  to  the  ten  Entente 
Allies — Great  Britain,  France,  Italy,  Japan,  Russia,  Belgium, 
Montenegro,  Portugal,  Rumania,  and  Serbia — is  as  follows:] 

The  suggestion  which  I  am  instructed  to  make  the  Presi 
dent  has  long  had  it  in  mind  to  offer.  He  is  somewhat  em 
barrassed  to  offer  it  at  this  particular  time,  because  it  may 
now  seem  to  have  been  prompted  by  the  recent  overtures  of 
the  Central  Powers.  It  is,  in  fact,  in  no  way  associated 
with  them  in  its  origin,  and  the  President  would  have  de 
layed  offering  it  until  those  overtures  had  been  answered  but 
for  the  fact  that  it  also  concerns  the  question  of  peace  and 
may  best  be  considered  in  connection  with  other  proposals 
which  have  the  same  end  in  view.  The  President  can  only 
beg  that  his  suggestion  be  considered  entirely  on  its  own 
merits  and  as  if  it  had  been  made  in  other  circumstances. 

[Thenceforward  the  note  proceeds  identically  to  all  the  powers, 
as  follows:] 

The  President  suggests  that  an  early  occasion  be  sought 
to  call  out  from  all  the  nations  now  at  war  such  an  avowal 
of  their  respective  views  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  the 
war  might  be  concluded  and  the  arrangements  which  would 
be  deemed  satisfactory  as  a  guaranty  against  its  renewal 
or  the  kindling  of  any  similar  conflict  in  the  future  as  would 
make  it  possible  frankly  to  compare  them.  He  is  indifferent 
as  to  the  means  taken  to  accomplish  this.  He  would  be 
happy  himself  to  serve,  or  even  to  take  the  initiative  in  its 
accomplishment,  in  any  way  that  might  prove  acceptable, 
but  he  has  no  desire  to  determine  the  method  or  the  in 
strumentality.  One  way  will  be  as  acceptable  to  him  as 
another,  if  only  the  great  object  he  has  in  mind  be  attained. 

He  takes  the  liberty  of  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  objects,  which  the  statesmen  of  the  belligerents  on  both 
«ides  have  in  mind  in  this  war,  are  virtually  the  same,  as 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

stated  in  general  terms  to  their  own  people  and  to  the  world. 
Each  side  desires  to  make  the  rights  and  privileges  of  weak 
peoples  and  small  States  as  secure  against  aggression  or 
denial  in  the  future  as  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  great 
and  powerful  States  now  at  war.  Each  wishes  itself  to  be 
made  secure  in  the  future,  along  with  all  other  nations  and 
peoples,  against  the  recurrence  of  wars  like  this  and  against 
aggression  or  selfish  interference  of  any  kind.  Each  would 
be  jealous  of  the  formation  of  any  more  rival  leagues  to 
preserve  an  uncertain  balance  of  power  amid  multiplying 
suspicions;  but  each  is  ready  to  consider  the  formation  of 
a  league  of  nations  to  insure  peace  and  justice  throughout 
the  world.  Before  that  final  step  can  be  taken,  however, 
each  deems  it  necessary  first  to  settle  the  issues  of  the  pres 
ent  war  upon  terms  which  will  certainly  safeguard  the  in 
dependence,  the  territorial  integrity,  and  the  political  and 
commercial  freedom  of  the  nations  involved. 

In  the  measures  to  be  taken  to  secure  the  future  peace 
of  the  world  the  people  and  Government  of  the  United 
States  are  as  vitally  and  as  directly  interested  as  the  Gov 
ernments  now  at  war.  Their  interest,  moreover,  in  the 
means  to  be  adopted  to  relieve  the  smaller  and  weaker  peo 
ples  of  the  world  of  the  peril  of  wrong  and  violence  is  as 
quick  and  ardent  as  that  of  any  other  people  or  Government. 
They  stand  ready,  and  even  eager,  to  cooperate  in  the  ac 
complishment  of  these  ends,  when  the  war  is  over,  with 
every  influence  and  resource  at  their  command.  But  the 
war  must  first  be  concluded.  The  terms  upon  which  it  is 
to  be  concluded  they  are  not  at  liberty  to  suggest,  but  the 
President  does  feel  that  it  is  his  right  and  his  duty  to 
point  out  their  intimate  interest  in  its  conclusion,  lest  it 
should  presently  be  too  late  to  accomplish  the  greater  things 
which  lie  beyond  its  conclusion,  lest  the  situation  of  neutral 
nations,  now  exceedingly  hard  to  endure,  be  rendered  alto 
gether  intolerable,  and  lest,  more  than  all,  an  injury  be  done 
civilization  itself  which  can  never  be  atoned  for  or  repaired. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

The  President  therefore  feels  altogether  justified  in  sug 
gesting  an  immediate  opportunity  for  a  comparison  of  views 
as  to  the  terms  which  must  precede  those  ultimate  arrange 
ments  for  the  peace  of  the  world,  which  all  desire  and  in 
which  the  neutral  nations  as  well  as  those  at  war  are  ready 
to  play  their  full  responsible  part.  If  the  contest  must 
continue  to  proceed  toward  undefined  ends  by  slow  attrition 
until  the  one  group  of  belligerents  or  the  other  is  exhausted ; 
if  million  after  million  of  human  lives  must  continue  to 
be  offered  up  until  on  the  one  side  or  the  other  there  are 
no  more  to  offer;  if  resentments  must  be  kindled  that  can 
never  cool  and  despairs  engendered  from  which  there  can 
be  no  recovery,  hopes  of  peace  and  of  the  willing  concert  of 
free  peoples  will  be  rendered  vain  and  idle. 

The  life  of  the  entire  world  has  been  profoundly  affected. 
Every  part  of  the  great  family  of  mankind  has  felt  the 
burden  and  terror  of  this  unprecedented  contest  of  arms. 
No  nation  in  the  civilized  world  can  be  said  in  truth  to 
stand  outside  its  influence  or  to  be  safe  against  its  disturb 
ing  effects.  And  yet  the  concrete  objects  for  which  it  is 
being  waged  have  never  been  definitively  stated. 

The  leaders  of  the  several  belligerents  have,  as  has  been 
said,  stated  those  objects  in  general  terms.  But,  stated  in 
general  terms,  they  seem  the  same  on  both  sides.  Never 
yet  have  the  authoritative  spokesmen  of  either  side  avowed 
the  precise  objects  which  would,  if  attained,  satisfy  them 
and  their  people  that  the  war  had  been  fought  out.  The 
world  has  been  left  to  conjecture  what  definitive  results, 
what  actual  exchange  of  guaranties,  what  political  or  terri 
torial  changes  or  readjustments,  what  stage  of  military 
success,  even,  would  bring  the  war  to  an  end. 

It  may  be  that  peace  is  nearer  than  we  know;  that  the 
terms  which  the  belligerents  on  the  one  side  and  on  the 
other  would  deem  it  necessary  to  insist  upon  are  not  so 
irreconcilable  as  some  have  feared;  that  an  interchange  of 
views  would  clear  the  way  at  least  for  conference  and  make 

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Presidential  Messages t  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

the  permanent  concord  of  the  nations  a  hope  of  the  imme 
diate  future,  a  concert  of  nations  immediately  practicable. 

The  President  is  not  proposing  peace;  he  is  not  even 
offering  mediation.  He  is  merely  proposing  that  soundings 
be  taken  in  order  that  we  may  learn,  the  neutral  nations 
with  the  belligerent,  how  near  the  haven  of  peace  may  be 
for  which  all  mankind  longs  with  an  intense  and  increasing 
longing.  He  believes  that  the  spirit  in  which  he  speaks 
and  the  objects  which  he  seeks  will  be  understood  by  all 
concerned,  and  he  confidently  hopes  for  a  response  which 
will  bring  a  new  light  into  the  affairs  of  the  world. 

LANSING. 


[The  President's  suggestion  in  the  foregoing  note — that  an  early 
occasion  be  sought  to  call  out  from  the  nations  at  war  an  avowal 
of  their  respective  views  as  to  peace  terms — was  answered  first 
by  Germany,  which  reiterated  its  own  proposal  of  a  meeting  of 
delegates  at  a  neutral  place.  The  reply  of  the  Entente  Allies 
came  from  France,  on  January  10.  It  expressed  a  belief  that  the 
time  had  not  yet  arrived  when  they  could  secure  a  peace  which 
would  be  of  lasting  benefit  to  Europe.  The  note  went  on,  how 
ever,  to  state  the  general  war  aims  of  the  Entente,  including  the 
restoration  of  Belgium,  Serbia,  and  Montenegro,  with  indemnities; 
the  evacuation  of  invaded  portions  of  France,  Russia,  and  Ru 
mania,  with  reparation;  and  the  reorganization  of  Europe,  based 
upon  nationalities. 

On  January  22,  1917,  the  President  appeared  before  the  Senate 
and  gave  expression  to  his  views  regarding  the  part  the  United 
States  should  play  when  peace  comes  in  Europe.  His  address  is 
as  follows:] 


PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    ADDRESS    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES 
SENATE,  ON  ESSENTIAL  TERMS  OF  PEACE  IN  EUROPE 

[Delivered  on  January  22,  1917] 

Gentlemen  of  the  Senate: 

On  the  eighteenth  of  December  last  I  addressed  an  iden 
tic  note  to  the  governments  of  the  nations  now  at  war  re- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

questing  them  to  state,  more  definitely  than  they  had  yet 
been  stated  by  either  group  of  belligerents,  the  terms  upon 
which  they  would  deem  *'  possible  to  make  peace,  I  spoke 
on  behalf  of  humanity  and  of  the  rights  of  all  neutral  na 
tions  like  our  own,  niarv  of  whose  most  vital  interests  the 
war  puts  in  constant  ieopardy.  The  Central  Powers  united 
in  a  reply  which  stat  d  ^.rely  that  they  were  ready  to  meet 
their  antagonists  in  ucriference  to  discuss  terms  of  peace. 
The  Entente  Powers  have  replied  much  more  definitely  and 
have  stated,  in  general  terms,  indeed,  but  with  sufficient 
definiteness  to  imply  details,  the  arrangements,  guarantees, 
and  acts  of  reparation  w  J.ch  they  deem  to  be  the  indispen 
sable  conditions  of  a  satisfactory  settlement.  We  are  that 
much  nearer  a  definite  discussion  of  the  peace  which  shall 
end  the  present  war.  We  are  that  much  nearer  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  international  concert  which  must  thereafter 
hold  the  world  at  peace.  In  every  discussion  of  the  peace 
that  must  end  this  war  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  that  peace 
must  be  followed  by  some  definite  concert  of  power  which 
will  make  it  virtually  impossible  that  any  such  catastrophe 
should  ever  overwhelm  us  again.  Every  lover  of  mankind, 
every  sane  and  thoughtful  man  must  take  that  for  granted. 

I  have  sought  this  opportunity  to  address  you  because  * 
I  thought  that  I  owed  it  to  you,  as  the  council  ass9ciated 
with  me  in  the  final  determination  of  our  international  obli 
gations,  to  disclose  to  you  without  reserve  the  thought  and 
purpose  that  have  been  taking  form  in  my  mind  in  regard 
to  the  duty  of  our  Government  in  the  days  to  come  when 
it  will  be  necessary  to  lay  afresh  and  upon  a  new  plan  the 
foundations  of  peace  among  the  nations. 

It  is  inconceivable  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
should  play  no  part  in  that  great  enterprise.  To  take  part 
in  such  a  service  will  be  the  opportunity  for  which  they  have 
sought  to  prepare  themselves  by  the  very  principles  and 
purposes  of  their  polity  and  the  approved  practices  of  their 
Government  ever  since  the  days  when  they  set  up  a  new 

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nation  in  the  high  and  honourable  hope  that  it  might  in  all 
that  it  was  and  did  show  mankind  the  way  to  liberty.  They 
cannot  in  honour  withold  the  service  to  which  they  are  now 
about  to  be  challenged.  They  do  not  wish  to  withhold  it. 
But  they  owe  it  to  themselves  and  to  the  other  nations  of  the 
world  to  state  the  conditions  under  which  they  will  feel  free 
to  render  it. 

That  service  is  nothing  less  than  this,  to  add  their  auth 
ority  and  their  power  to  the  authority  and  force  of  other 
nations  to  guarantee  peace  and  justice  throughout  the  world. 
Such  a  settlement  cannot  now  be  long  postponed.  It  is 
right  that  before  it  comes  this  Government  should  frankly 
formulate  the  conditions  upon  which  it  would  feel  justified 
in  asking  car  people  to  approve  its  formal  and  solemn  ad 
herence  to  a  League  for  Peace.  I  am  here  to  attempt  to 
state  those  conditions. 

The  present  war  must  first  be  ended;  but  we  owe  it  to 
candour  and  to  a  just  regard  for  the  opinion  of  mankind  to 
say  that,  so  far  as  our  participation  in  guarantees  of  future 
peace  is  concerned,  it  makes  a  great  deal  of  difference  in 
what  way  and  upon  what  terms  it  is  ended.  The  treaties 
and  agreements  which  bring  it  to  an  end  must  embody 
terms  which  will  create  a  peace  that  is  worth  guaranteeing 
and  preserving,  a  peace  that  will  win  the  approval  of  man 
kind,  not  merely  a  peace  that  will  serve  the  several  interests 
and  immediate  aims  of  the  nations  engaged.  We  shall  have 
no  voice  in  determining  what  those  terms  shall  be,  but  we 
shall,  I  feel  sure,  have  a  voice  in  determining  whether  they 
shall  be  made  lasting  or  not  by  the  guarantees  of  a  univer 
sal  covenant,  and  our  judgment  upon  what  is  fundamental 
and  essential  as  a  condition  precedent  to  permanency  should 
be  spoken  now,  not  afterwards  when  it  may  be  too  late. 

No  covenant  of  cooperative  peace  that  does  not  include 
the  peoples  of  the  New  World  can  suffice  to  keep  the  future 
safe  against  war;  and  yet  there  is  only  one  sort  of  peace 
that  the  peoples  of  America  could  join  in  guaranteeing, 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

The  elements  of  that  peace  must  be  elements  that  engage 
the  confidence  and  satisfy  the  principles  of  the  American 
governments,  elements  consistent  with  their  political  faith 
and  with  the  practical  convictions  which  the  peoples  of 
America  have  once  for  all  embraced  and  undertaken  to 
defend. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  any  American  government 
would  throw  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  any  terms  of  peace 
the  governments  now  at  war  might  agree  upon,  or  seek  to 
upset  them  when  made,  whatever  they  might  be.  I  only 
take  it  for  granted  that  mere  terms  of  peace  between  the 
belligerents  will  not  satisfy  even  the  belligerents  them 
selves.  Mere  agreements  may  not  make  peace  secure. 
It  will  be  absolutely  necessary  that  a  force  be  created 
as  a  guarantor  of  the  permanency  of  the  settlement 
so  much  greater  than  the  force  of  any  nation  now  engaged 
or  any  alliance  hitherto  formed  or  projected  that  no 
nation,  no  probable  combination  of  nations  could  face 
or  withstand  it.  If  the  peace  presently  to  be  made  is  to 
endure,  it  must  be  a  peace  made  secure  by  the  organized 
major  force  of  mankind. 

The  terms  of  the  immediate  peace  agreed  upon  will  de 
termine  whether  it  is  a  peace  for  which  such  a  guarantee 
can  be  secured.  The  question  upon  which  the  whole  future 
peace  and  policy  of  the  world  depends  is  this:  Is  the 
present  war  a  struggle  for  a  just  and  secure  peace,  or  only 
for  a  new  balance  of  power?  If  it  be  only  a  struggle  for 
a  new  balance  of  power,  who  will  guarantee,  who  can  guar 
antee,  the  stable  equilibrium  of  the  new  arrangement?  Only 
a  tranquil  Europe  can  be  a  stable  Europe.  There  must 
be,  not  a  balance  of  power,  but  a  community  of  power; 
not  organized  rivalries,  but  an  organized  common  peace. 

Fortunately  we  have  received  very  explicit  assurances 
on  this  point.  The  statesmen  of  both  of  the  groups  of 
nations  now  arrayed  against  one  another  have  said,  in 
terms  that  could  not  be  misinterpreted,  that  it  was  no  part 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

of  the  purpose  they  had  in  mind  to  crush  their  antagonists. 
But  the  implications  of  these  assurances  may  not  be  equally 
clear  to  all — may  not  be  the  same  on  both  sides  of  the 
water.  I  think  it  will  be  serviceable  if  I  attempt  to  set 
forth  what  we  understand  them  to  be. 

They  imply,  first  of  all,  that  it  must  be  a  peace  without 
victory.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  say  this.  I  beg  that  I  may 
be  permitted  to  put  my  own  interpretation  upon  it  and  that 
it  may  be  understood  that  no  other  interpretation  was  in  my 
thought.  I  am  seeking  only  to  face  realities  and  to  face 
them  without  soft  concealments.  Victory  would  mean  peace 
forced  upon  the  loser,  a  victor's  terms  imposed  upon  the 
vanquished.  It  would  be  accepted  in  humiliation,  under 
duress,  at  an  intolerable  sacrifice,  and  would  leave  a  sting, 
a  resentment,  a  bitter  memory  upon  which  terms  of  peace 
would  rest,  not  permanently,  but  only  as  upon  quicksand. 
Only  a  peace  between  equals  can  last.  Only  a  peace  the 
very  principle  of  which  is  equality  and  a  common  partici 
pation  in  a  common  benefit.  The  right  state  of  mind,  the 
right  feeling  between  nations^  is  as  necessary  for  a  lasting 
peace  as  is  the  just  settlement  of  vexed  questions  of  terri 
tory  or  of  racial  and  national  allegiance. 

The  equality  of  nations  upon  which  peace  must  be  founded 
if  it  is  to  last  must  be  an  equality  of  rights ;  the  guarantees 
exchanged  must  neither  recognize  nor  imply  a  difference 
between  big  nations  and  small,  between  those  that  are 
powerful  and  those  that  are  weak.  Right  must  be  based 
upon  the  common  strength,  not  upon  the  individual  strength, 
of  the  nations  upon  whose  concert  peace  will  depend. 
Equality  of  territory  or  of  resources  there  of  course  cannot 
be;  nor  any  other  sort  of  equality  not  gained  in  the  or 
dinary  peaceful  and  legitimate  development  of  the  peoples 
themselves.  But  no  one  asks  or  expects  anything  more 
than  an  equality  of  rights.  Mankind  is  looking  now  for 
freedom  of  life,  not  for  equipoises  of  power. 

And  there  is  a  deeper  thing  involved  than  even  equality 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

of  right  among  organized  nations.  No  peace  can  last,  OP 
ought  to  last,  which  does  not  recognize  and  accept  the  prin 
ciple  that  governments  derive  all  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  that  no  right  anywhere 
exists  to  hand  peoples  about  from  sovereignty  to  sover 
eignty  as  if  they  were  property.  I  take  it  for  granted,  for 
instance,  if  I  may  venture  upon  a  single  example,  that 
statesmen  everywhere  are  agreed  that  there  should  be  a 
united,  independent,  and  autonomous  Poland,  and  that 
henceforth  inviolable  security  of  life,  of  worship,  and  of 
industrial  and  social  development  should  be  guaranteed  to 
all  peoples  who  have  lived  hitherto  under  the  power  of 
governments  devoted  to  a  faith  and  purpose  hostile  to  their 
own. 

I  speak  of  this,  not  because  of  any  desire  to  exalt  an 
abstract  political  principle  which  has  always  been  held 
very  dear  by  those  who  have  sought  to  build  up  liberty  in 
America,  but  for  the  same  reason  that  I  have  spoken  of  the 
other  conditions  of  peace  which  seem  to  me  clearly  indis 
pensable — because  I  wish  frankly  to  uncover  realities.  Any 
peace  which  does  not  recognize  and  accept  this  principle 
will  inevitably  be  upset.  It  will  not  rest  upon  the  affec 
tions  or  the  convictions  of  mankind.  The  ferment  of  spirit 
of  whole  populations  will  fight  subtly  and  constantly  against 
it,  and  all  the  world  will  sympathize.  The  world  can  be 
at  peace  only  if  its  life  is  stable,  and  there  can  be  no  sta 
bility  where  the  will  is  in  rebellion,  where  there  is  not  tran 
quillity  of  spirit  and  a  sense  of  justice,  of  freedom,  and  of 
right. 

So  far  as  practicable,  moreover,  every  great  people  now 
struggling  towards  a  full  development  of  its  resources  and 
of  its  powers  should  be  assured  a  direct  outlet  to  tlie  great 
highways^f  the  sea.  Where  this  cannot  be  done  by  the 
celssloii  of  territory,  it  can  no  doubt  be  done  by  the 
neutralization  of  direct  rights  of  way  under  the  gen 
eral  guarantee  which  will  assure  the  peace  itself.  With 

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Presidential  Messages,  'Addresses  and  State  Papers 

a  right  comity  of  arrangement  no  nation  need  be  shut 
away  from  free  access  to  the  open  paths  of  the  world's 
commerce. 

And  the  paths  of  the  sea  must  alike  in  law  and  in  fact 
be  free.  The  freedom  of  the  seas  is  the  sine  qua  non  of 
peace,  equality,  and  cooperation.  No  doubt  a  somewhat 
radical  reconsideration  of  many  of  the  rules  of  interna 
tional  practice  hitherto  thought  to  be  established  may  be 
necessary  in  order  to  make  the  seas  indeed  free  and  com 
mon  in  practically  all  circumstances  for  the  use  of  man 
kind,  but  the  motive  for  such  changes  is  convincing  and 
compelling.  There  can  be  no  trust  or  intimacy  between 
the  peoples  of  the  world  without  them.  The  free,  constant, 
unthreatened  intercourse  of  nations  is  an  essential  part  of 
the  process  of  peace  and  of  development.  It  need  not  be 
difficult  either  to  define  or  to  secure  the  freedom  of  the  seas 
if  the  governments  of  the  world  sincerely  desire  to  come 
to  an  agreement  concerning  it. 

,  It  is  a  problem  closely  connected  with  the  limitation  of 
naval  armaments  and  the  cooperation  of  the  navies  of  the 
world  in  keeping  the  seas  at  once  free  and  safe.  And  the 
question  of  limiting  naval  armaments  opens  the  wider  and 
perhaps  more  difficult  question  of  the  limitation  of  armies 
and  of  all  programmes  of  military  preparation.  Difficult  and 
delicate  as  these  questions  are,  they  must  be  faced  with 
the  utmost  candor  and  decided  in  a  spirit  of  real  accom 
modation  if  peace  is  to  come  with  healing  in  its  wings,  and 
come  to  stay.  Peace  cannot  be  had  without  concession  and 
sacrifice.  There  can  be  no  sense  of  safety  and  equality 
among  the  nations  if  great  preponderating  armaments  are 
henceforth  to  continue  here  and  there  to  be  built  up  and 
maintained.  The  statesmen  of  the  world  must  plan  for 
peace  and  nations*  must  adjust  and  accommodate  their 
policy  to  it  as  they  have  planned  for  war  and  made  ready 
for  pitiless  contest  and  rivalry.  The  question  of  arma 
ments,  whether  on  land  or  sea,  is  the  most  immediately 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

and  intensely  practical  question  connected  with  the  future 
fortunes  of  nations  and  of  mankind. 

I  have  spoken  upon  these  great  matters  without  reserve 
and  with  the  utmost  explicitness  because  it  has  seemed  to 
me  to  be  necessary  if  the  world's  yearning  desire  for  peace 
was  anywhere  to  find  free  voice  and  utterance.  Perhaps 
I  am  the  only  person  in  high  authority  amongst  all  the 
peoples  of  the  world  who  is  at  liberty  to  speak  and  hold 
nothing  back.  I  am  speaking  as  an  individual,  and  yet  I 
am  speaking  also,  of  course,  as  the  responsible  head  of  a 
great  government,  and  I  feel  confident  that  I  have  said 
what  the  people  of  the  United  States  would  wish  me  to 
say.  May  I  not  add  that  I  hope  and  believe  that  I  am  in 
effect  speaking  for  liberals  and  friends  of  humanity  in  every 
nation  and  of  every  programme  of  liberty  ?  I  would  fain  be 
lieve  that  I  am  speaking  for  the  silent  mass  of  mankind 
everywhere  who  have  as  yet  had  no  place  or  opportunity 
to  speak  their  real  hearts  out  concerning  the  death  and  ruin 
they  see  to  have  come  already  upon  the  persons  and  the 
horns  they  hold  most  dear. 

Ano.  in  holding  out  the  expectation  that  the  people  and 
Government  of  the  United  States  will  join  the  other  civil 
ized  nations  of  the  world  in  guaranteeing  the  permanence 
of  peace  upon  such  terms  as  I  have  named  I  speak  with 
the  greater  boldness  and  confidence  because  it  is  clear  to 
every  man  who  can  think  that  there  is  in  this  promise  no 
breach  in  either  our  traditions  or  our  policy  as  a  nation, 
but  a  fulfilment,  rather,  of  all  that  we  have  professed  or 
striven  for. 

I  am  proposing,  as  it  were,  that  the  nations  should  with 
one  accord  adopt  the  doctrine  of  President  Monroe  as  the 
doctrine  of  the  world:  that  no  nation  should  seek  to  extend 
its  polity  over  any  other  nation  or  people,  but  that  every 
people  should  be  left  free  to  determine  its  own  polity,  its 
own  way  of  development,  unhindered,  unthreatened,  un 
afraid,  the  little  along  with  the  great  and  powerful. 

355 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

I  am  proposing  that  all  nations  henceforth  avoid  en 
tangling  alliances  which  would  draw  them  into  competitions 
of  power ;  catch  them  in  a  net  of  intrigue  and  selfish  rivalry, 
and  disturb  their  own  affairs  with  influences  intruded  from 
without.  There  is  no  entangling  alliance  in  a  concert  of 
power.  When  all  unite  to  act  in  the  same  sense  and  with 
the  same  purpose  all  act  in  the  common  interest  and  are 
free  to  live  their  own  lives  under  a  common  protection. 

I  am  proposing  government  by  the  consent  of  the  gov 
erned;  that  freedom  of  the  seas  which  in  international  con 
ference  after  conference  representatives  of  the  United 
States  have  urged  with  the  eloquence  of  those  who  are  the 
convinced  disciples  of  liberty ;  and  that  moderation  of  arma 
ments  which  makes  of  armies  and  navies  a  power  for  order 
merely,  not  an  instrument  of  aggression  or  of  selfish  vio 
lence. 

These  are  American  principles,  American  policies.  We 
could  stand  for  no  others.  And  they  are  also  the  principles 
and  policies  of  forward  looking  men  and  women  every 
where,  of  every  modern  nation,  of  every  enlightened  com 
munity.  They  are  the  principles  of  mankind  and  must 
prevail. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  SECOND  VETO  OP  AN  IMMIGRATION- 
RESTRICTION  BILL 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  A  bill  seeking  to  restrict  immigration 
by  imposing  a  reading  test,  in  any  language,  had  again 
come  to  the  President  for  approval — a  similar  measure  hav 
ing  been  vetoed  on  January  28,  1915  (see  page  94)>] 

To  the  House  of  Representatives: 

I  very  much  regret  to  return  this  bill  (H.  R.  10384,  "An 
act  to  regulate  the  immigration  of  aliens  to,  and  the  resi- 

356 


Woodrow    Wilson 

dence  of  aliens  in,  the  United  States")  without  my  signa 
ture.  In  most  of  the  provisions  of  the  bill  I  should  be  very 
glad  to  concur,  but  I  cannot  rid  myself  of  the  conviction 
that  the  literacy  test  constitutes  a  radical  change  in  the 
policy  of  the  Nation  which  is  not  justified  in  principle.  It 
is  not  a  test  of  character,  of  quality,  or  of  personal  fitness, 
but  would  operate  in  most  cases  merely  as  a  penalty  for  lack 
of  opportunity  in  the  country  from  which  the  alien  seeking 
admission  came.  The  opportunity  to  gain  an  education  is 
in  many  cases  one  of  the  chief  opportunities  sought  by  the 
immigrant  in  coming  to  the  United  States,  and  our  experi 
ence  in  the  past  has  not  been  that  the  illiterate  immigrant 
is  as  such  an  undesirable  immigrant.  Tests  of  quality  and 
of  purpose  cannot  be  objected  to  on  principle,  but  tests  of 
opportunity  surely  may  be. 

Moreover,  even  if  this  test  might  be  equitably  insisted 
on,  one  of  the  exceptions  proposed  to  its  application  in 
volves  a  provision  which  might  lead  to  very  delicate  and 
hazardous  diplomatic  situations.  The  bill  exempts  from  the 
operation  of  the  literacy  test  "all  aliens  who  shall  prove  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  proper  immigration  officer  or  to  the 
Secretary  of  Labor  that  they  are  seeking  admission  to  the 
United  States  to  avoid  religious  persecution  in  the  country 
of  their  last  permanent  residence,  whether  such  persecution 
be  evidenced  by  overt  acts  or  by  laws  or  governmental  reg 
ulations  that  discriminate  against  the  alien  or  the  race  to 
which  he  belongs  because  of  his  religious  faith."  Such  a 
provision,  so  applied  and  administered,  would  oblige  the 
officer  concerned  in  effect  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  laws 
and  practices  of  a  foreign  Government  and  declare  that  they 
did  or  did  not  constitute  religious  persecution.  This  would, 
to  say  the  least,  be  a  most  invidious  function  for  any  admin 
istrative  officer  of  this  Government  to  perform,  and  it  is  not 
only  possible,  but  probable,  that  very  serious  questions  of 
international  justice  and  comity  would  arise  between  this 
Government  and  the  Government  or  Governments  thus 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

officially  condemned  should  its  exercise  be  attempted.  I 
dare  say  that  these  consequences  were  not  in  the  minds  of 
the  proponents  of  this  provision,  but  the  provision  sepa 
rately  and  in  itself  renders  it  unwise  for  me  to  give  my 
assent  to  this  legislation  in  its  present  form. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 
THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  January  %9, 1917. 

[Immigration  legislation  was  not  then  a  pressing  topic;  for 
with  the  outbreak  of  war  in  Europe  the  number  of  immigrants 
admitted  into  the  United  States  had  decreased  from  1,200,000 
annually  to  300,000.  Favoring  restrictive  legislation  were  those 
who  argued  that  when  war  was  ended  vast  numbers  would  rush  to 
the  United  States.  Opposed  to  such  legislation  were  many  who 
maintained  that  a  Europe  under  reconstruction  would  absorb  all 
the  energies  of  its  populations,  and  others  expressed  anxiety  over 
the  growing  scarcity  of  common  labor  in  the  United  States. 

But  Congress  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the  legislation,  and 
the  bill  was  promptly  passed  over  President  Wilson's  veto.  Thus 
a  literacy  test  was  finally  imposed  on  immigrants,  in  accordance 
with  the  recommendations  of  an  Immigration  Commission,  after 
vetoes  by  Presidents  Cleveland,  Taft,  and  Wilson.] 


VILSON'S    ADDRESS   TO    CONGRESS    FOLLOWING   GERMANY'S 

RENEWAL    OF    SUBMARINE   WAR   AGAINST    MERCHANT 

SHIPS — AND  ANNOUNCING  THE  SEVERANCE  OF 

DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS 

(Delivered  in  Joint  Session,  February  3,  1917) 

[The  diplomatic  correspondence  which  had  preceded  this  crisis 
will  be  found  in  the  pages  ending  with  270.] 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

The  Imperial  German  Government  on  the  thirty-first  of 
January  announced  to  this  Government  and  to  the  govern 
ments  of  the  other  neutral  nations  that  on  and  after  the 

858 


Woodrow    Wilson 

first  day  of  February,  the  present  month,  it  would  adopt  a 
policy  with  regard  to  the  use  of  submarines  against  all  ship 
ping  seeking  to  pass  through  certain  designated  areas  of 
the  high  seas  to  which  it  is  clearly  my  duty  to  call  your 
attention. 

Let  me  remind  the  Congress  that  on  the  eighteenth  of 
April  last,  in  view  of  the  sinking  on  the  twenty-fourth  of 
March  of  the  cross-channel  passenger  steamer  Sussex  by  a 
German  submarine,  without  summons  or  warning,  and  the 
consequent  loss  of  the  lives  of  several  citizens  of  the  United 
States  who  were  passengers  aboard  her,  this  Government 
addressed  a  note  to  the  Imperial  German  Government  in 
which  it  made  the  following  declaration: 

If  it  is  still  the  purpose  of  the  Imperial  Government  to  prose 
cute  relentless  and  indiscriminate  warfare  against  vessels  of  com 
merce  by  the  use  of  submarines  without  regard  to  what  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  must  consider  the  sacred  and 
indisputable  rules  of  international  law  and  the  universally  recog 
nized  dictates  of  humanity,  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  at  last  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  but  one  course  it 
can  pursue.  Unless  the  Imperial  Government  should  now  imme 
diately  declare  and  eifect  an  abandonment  of  its  present  methods 
of  submarine  warfare  against  passenger  and  freight-carrying 
vessels,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  can  have  no  choice 
but  to  sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the  German  Empire 
altogether. 

In  reply  to  this  declaration  the  Imperial  German  Govern 
ment  gave  this  Government  the  following  assurance: 

The  German  Government  is  prepared  to  do  its  utmost  to  confine 
the  operations  of  war  for  the  rest  of  its  duration  to  the  fighting 
forces  of  the  belligerents,  thereby  also  insuring  the  freedom  of 
the  seas,  a  principle  upon  which  the  German  Government  believes, 
now  as  before,  to  be  in  agreement  with  the  Government  of  the 
United  States. 

The  German  Government,  guided  by  this  idea,  notifies  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  that  the  German  naval  forces  have 
received  the  following  orders:  In  accordance  with  the  general 
principles  of  visit  and  search  and  destruction  of  merchant  vessels 
recognized  by  international  law,  such  vessels,  both  within  and  with 
out  the  area  declared  as  naval  war  zone,  shall  not  be  sunk  without 
warning  and  without  saving  human  lives,  unless  these  ships  attempt 
to  escape  or  offer  resistance. 

859 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

"But,"  it  added,  "neutrals  can  not  expect  that  Germany, 
forced  to  fight  for  her  existence,  shall,  for  the  sake  of  neu 
tral  interest,  restrict  the  use  of  an  effective  weapon  if  her 
enemy  is  permitted  to  continue  to  apply  at  will  methods 
of  warfare  violating  the  rules  of  international  law.  Such 
a  demand  would  be  incompatible  with  the  character  of  neu 
trality,  and  the  German  Government  is  convinced  that 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  does  not  think  of 
making  such  a  demand,  knowing  that  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  has  repeatedly  declared  that  it  is  deter 
mined  to  restore  the  principle  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas, 
from  whatever  quarter  it  has  been  violated." 

To  this  the  Government  of  the  United  States  replied  on 
the  eighth  of  May,  accepting,  of  course,  the  assurances 
given,  but  adding, 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  feels  it  necessary  to  state 
that  it  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  Imperial  German  Govern 
ment  does  not  intend  to  imply  that  the  maintenance  of  its  newly 
announced  policy  is  in  any  way  contingent  upon  the  course  or 
result  of  diplomatic  negotiations  between  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  and  any  other  belligerent  Government,  notwithstand 
ing  the  fact  that  certain  passages  in  the  Imperial  Government's 
note  of  the  4th  instant  might  appear  to  be  susceptible  of  that 
construction.  In  order,  however,  to  avoid  any  possible  misunder 
standing,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  notifies  the  Imperial 
Government  that  it  cannot  for  a  moment  entertain,  much  less 
discuss,  a  suggestion  that  respect  by  German  naval  authorities 
for  the  rights  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  upon  the  high  seas 
should  in  any  way  or  in  the  slightest  degree  be  made  contingent 
upon  the  conduct  of  any  other  Government  affecting  the  rights 
of  neutrals  and  noncombatants.  Responsibility  in  such  matters 
is  single,  not  joint;  absolute,  not  relative. 

To  this  note  of  the  eighth  of  May  the  Imperial  German 
Government  made  no  reply. 

On  the  thirty-first  of  January,  the  Wednesday  of  the 
present  week,  the  German  Ambassador  handed  to  the  Sec 
retary  of  State,  along  with  a  formal  note,  a  memorandum 
which  contains  the  following  statement: 

The  Imperial  Government,  therefore,  does  not  doubt  that  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  will  understand  the  situation 

360 


JVoodrow    Wilson 

thus  forced  upon  Germany  by  the  'Entente-Allies'  brutal  methods 
of  war  and  by  their  determination  to  destroy  the  Central  Powers, 
and  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  will  further  realize 
that  the  now  openly  disclosed  intentions  of  the  Entente-Allies 
give  back  to  Germany  the  freedom  of  action  which  she  reserved 
in  her  note  addressed  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  on 
May  4,  1916. 

Under  these  circumstances  Germany  will  meet  the  illegal  meas 
ures  of  her  enemies  by  forcibly  preventing  after  February  1,  1917, 
in  a  zone  around  Great  Britain,  France,  Italy,  and  in  the  Eastern 
Mediterranean  all  navigation,  that  of  neutrals  included,  from  and 
to  England  and  from  and  to  France,  etc.,  etc.  All  ships  met 
within  the  zone  will  be  sunk. 

I  think  that  you  will  agree  with  me  that,  in  view  of  this 
declaration,  which  suddenly  and  without  prior  intimation 
of  any  kind  deliberately  withdraws  the  solemn  assurance 
given  in  the  Imperial  Government's  note  of  the  fourth  of 
May,  1916,  this  Government  has  no  alternative  consistent 
with  the  dignity  and  honour  of  the  United  States  but  to 
take  the  course  which,  in  its  note  of  the  eighteenth  of  April, 
1916,  it  announced  that  it  would  take  in  the  event  that  the 
German  Government  did  not  declare  and  effect  an  abandon 
ment  of  the  methods  of  submarine  warfare  which  it  was 
then  employing  and  to  which  it  now  purposes  again  to 
resort. 

I  have,  therefore,  directed  the  Secretary  of  State  to  an 
nounce  to  His  Excellency  the  German  Ambassador  that  all 
diplomatic  relations  between  the  United  States  and  the 
German  Empire  are  severed,  and  that  the  American  Am 
bassador  at  Berlin  will  immediately  be  withdrawn;  and, 
in  accordance  with  this  decision,  to  hand  to  His  Excellency 
his  passports. 

Notwithstanding  this  unexpected  action  of  the  German 
Government,  this  sudden  and  deeply  deplorable  renuncia 
tion  of  its  assurances.,  given  this  Government  at  one  of  the 
most  critical  moments  of  tension  in  the  relations  of  the 
two  governments,  I  refuse  to  believe  that  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  German  authorities  to  do  in  fact  what  they  ha\«e 
warned  us  they  will  feel  at  liberty  to  do.  I  cannot  bring 

361 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

myself  to  believe  that  they  will  indeed  pay  no  regard  to 
the  ancient  friendship  between  their  people  and  our  own  or 
to  the  solemn  obligations  which  have  been  exchanged  be 
tween  them  and  destroy  American  ships  and  take  the 
lives  of  American  citizens  in  the  wilful  prosecution  of  the 
ruthless  naval  programme  they  have  announced  their  in 
tention  to  adopt.  Only  actual  overt  acts  on  their  part 
can  make  me  believe  it  even  now. 

If  this  inveterate  confidence  on  my  part  in  the  sobriety 
and  prudent  foresight  of  their  purpose  should  unhappily 
prove  unfounded;  if  American  ships  and  American  lives 
should  in  fact  be  sacrificed  by  their  naval  commanders  in 
heedless  contravention  of  the  just  and  reasonable  under 
standings  of  international  law  and  the  obvious  dictates  of 
humanity,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  coming  again  before 
the  Congress,  to  ask  that  authority  be  given  me  to  use  any 
means  that  may  be  necessary  for  the  protection  of  our  sea 
men  and  our  people  in  the  prosecution  of  their  peaceful 
and  legitimate  errands  on  the  high  seas.  I  can  do  nothing 
less.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  all  neutral  governments  will 
take  the  same  course. 

We  do  not  desire  any  hostile  conflict  with  the  Imperial 
German  Government.  We  are  the  sincere  friends  of  the 
German  people  and  earnestly  desire  to  remain  at  peace 
with  the  Government  which  speaks  for  them.  We  shall 
not  believe  that  they  are  hostile  to  us  unless  and  until  we 
are  obliged  to  believe  it ;  and  we  purpose  nothing  more  than 
the  reasonable  defense  of  the  undoubted  rights  of  our  peo 
ple.  We  wish  to  serve  no  selfish  ends.  We  seek  merely 
to  stand  true  alike  in  thought  and  in  action  to  the  immemo 
rial  principles  of  our  people  which  I  sought  to  express  in 
my  address  to  the  Senate  only  two  weeks  ago, — seek  merely 
to  vindicate  our  right  to  liberty  and  justice  and  an  unmo 
lested  life.  These  are  the  bases  of  peace,  not  war.  God 
grant  we  may  not  be  challenged  to  defend  them  by  acts  of 
wilful  injustice  on  the  part  of  the  Government  of  Germany! 


Woodrow    Wilson 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS  REQUESTING  AUTHORITY  TO 
ARM  MERCHANT  SHIPS 

(Delivered  in  Joint  Session,  February  26,  1917) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

I  have  again  asked  the  privilege  of  addressing  you  be 
cause  we  are  moving  through  critical  times  during  which 
it  seems  to  me  to  be  my  duty  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the 
Houses  of  Congress,  so  that  neither  counsel  nor  action  shall 
run  at  cross  purposes  between  us. 

On  the  third  of  February  I  officially  informed  you  of  the 
sudden  and  unexpected  action  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government  in  declaring  its  intention  to  disregard  the 
promises  it  had  made  to  this  Government  in  April  last  and 
undertake  immediate  submarine  operations  against  all  com 
merce,  whether  of  belligerents  or  of  neutrals,  that  should 
seek  to  approach  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the  Atlantic 
coasts  of  Europe,  or  the  harbours  of  the  eastern  Mediter 
ranean,  and  to  conduct  those  operations  without  regard  to 
the  established  restrictions  of  international  practice,  with 
out  regard  to  any  considerations  of  humanity  even  which 
might  interfere  with  their  object.  That  policy  was  forth 
with  put  into  practice.  It  has  now  been  in  active  execution 
for  nearly  four  weeks. 

Its  practical  results  are  not  yet  fully  disclosed.  The 
commerce  of  other  neutral  nations  is  suffering  severely, 
but  not,  perhaps,  very  much  more  severely  than  it  was 
already  suffering  before  the  first  of  February,  when  the 
new  policy  of  the  Imperial  Government  was  put  into  oper 
ation.  We  have  asked  the  cooperation  of  the  other  neutral 
governments  to  prevent  these  depredations,  but  so  far  none 
of  them  has  thought  it  wise  to  join  us  in  any  common  cours& 
of  action.  Our  own  commerce  has  suffered,  is  suffering, 
rather  in  apprehension  than  in  fact,  rather  because  so  many 
of  our  ships  are  timidly  keeping  to  their  home  ports  than 
because  American  ships  have  been  sunk. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Two  American  vessels  have  been  sunk,  the  Housatonic 
and  the  Lyman  M.  Law.  The  case  of  the  Housatonic, 
which  was  carrying  foodstuffs  consigned  to  a  London  firm, 
was  essentially  like  the  case  of  the  Fry,  in  which,  it  will  be 
recalled,  the  German  Government  admitted  its  liability  for 
damages,  and  the  lives  of  the  crew,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Fry,  were  safeguarded  with  reasonable  care.  The  case  of 
the  Law,  which  was  carrying  lemon-box  staves  to  Palermo, 
disclosed  a  ruthlessness  of  method  which  deserves  grave 
condemnation,  but  was  accompanied  by  no  circumstances 
which  might  not  have  been  expected  at  any  time  in  con 
nection  with  the  use  of  the  submarine  against  merchantmen 
as  the  German  Government  has  used  it. 

In  sum,  therefore,  the  situation  we  find  ourselves  in  with 
regard  to  the  actual  conduct  of  the  German  submarine  war 
fare  against  commerce  and  its  effects  upon  our  own  ships 
and  people  is  substantially  the  same  that  it  was  when  I 
addressed  you  on  the  third  of  February,  except  for  the 
tying  up  of  our  shipping  in  our  own  ports  because  of  the 
unwillingness  of  our  shipowners  to  risk  their  vessels  at  sea 
without  insurance  or  adequate  protection,  and  the  very 
serious  congestion  of  our  commerce  which  has  resulted,  a 
congestion  which  is  growing  rapidly  more  and  more  serious 
every  day.  This  in  itself  might  presently  accomplish,  in 
effect,  what  the  new  German  submarine  orders  were  meant 
to  accomplish,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned.  We  can  only 
say,  therefore,  that  the  overt  act  which  I  have  ventured 
to  hope  the  German  commanders  would  in  fact  avoid  has 
not  occurred. 

But,  while  this  is  happily  true,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
there  have  been  certain  additional  indications  and  expres 
sions  of  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  German  press  and  the 
German  authorities  which  have  increased  rather  than  les 
sened  the  impression  that,  if  our  ships  and  our  people  are 
spared,  it  will  be  because  of  fortunate  circumstances  or 
because  the  commanders  of  the  German  submarines  which 

364 


Woodrow    Wilson 

they  may  happen  to  encounter  exercise  an  unexpected  dis 
cretion  and  restraint  rather  than  because  of  the  instructions 
under  which  those  commanders  are  acting.  It  would  be 
foolish  to  deny  that  the  situation  is  fraught  with  the  gravest 
possibilities  and  dangers.  No  thoughtful  man  can  fail  to 
see  that  the  necessity  for  definite  action  may  come  at  any 
time,  if  we  are  in  fact,  and  not  in  word  merely,  to  defend 
our  elementary  rights  as  a  neutral  nation.  It  would  be 
most  imprudent  to  be  unprepared. 

I  cannot  in  such  circumstances  be  unmindful  of  the  fact 
that  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  the  present  Congress 
is  immediately  at  hand,  by  constitutional  limitation;  and 
that  it  would  in  all  likelihood  require  an  unusual  length 
of  time  to  assemble  and  organize  the  Congress  which  is  to 
succeed  it.  I  feel  that  I  ought,  in  view  of  that  fact,  to 
obtain  from  you  full  and  immediate  assurance  of  the  au 
thority  which  I  may  need  at  any  moment  to  exercise.  No 
doubt  I  already  possess  that  authority  without  special  war 
rant  of  law,  by  the  plain  implication  of  my  constitutional 
duties  and  powers;  but  I  prefer,  in  the  present  circum 
stances,  not  to  act  upon  general  implication.  I  wish  to  feel 
that  the  authority  and  the  power  of  the  Congress  are  behind 
me  in  whatever  it  may  become  necessary  for  me  to  do.  We 
are  jointly  the  servants  of  the  people  and  must  act  together 
and  in  their  spirit,  so  far  as  we  can  divine  and  interpret  it. 

No  one  doubts  what  it  is  our  duty  to  do.  We  must  de 
fend  our  commerce  and  the  lives  of  our  people  in  the  midst 
of  the  present  trying  circumstances,  with  discretion  but 
with  clear  and  steadfast  purpose.  Only  the  method  and 
the  extent  remain  to  be  chosen,  upon  the  occasion,  if  occa 
sion  should  indeed  arise.  Since  it  has  unhappily  proved 
impossible  to  safeguard  our  neutral  rights  by  diplomatic 
means  against  the  unwarranted  infringements  they  are  suf 
fering  at  the  hands  of  Germany,  there  may  be  no  recourse 
but  to  armed  neutrality,  which  we  shall  know  how  to  main 
tain  and  for  which  there  is  abundant  American  precedent. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

It  is  devoutly  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  to 
put  armed  force  anywhere  into  action.  The  American 
people  do  not  desire  it,  and  our  desire  is  not  different  from 
theirs.  I  am  sure  that  they  will  understand  the  spirit  in 
which  I  am  now  acting,  the  purpose  I  hold  nearest  my  heart 
and  would  wish  to  exhibit  in  everything  I  do.  I  am  anx 
ious  that  the  people  of  the  nations  at  war  also  should  un 
derstand  and  not  mistrust  us.  I  hope  that  I  need  give  no 
further  proofs  and  assurances  than  I  have  already  given 
throughout  nearly  three  years  of  anxious  patience  that  I 
am  the  friend  of  peace  and  mean  to  preserve  it  for  Amer 
ica  so  long  as  I  am  able.  I  am  not  now  proposing  or  con 
templating  war  or  any  steps  that  need  lead  to  it.  I  merely 
request  that  you  will  accord  me  by  your  own  vote  and  defi 
nite  bestowal  the  means  and  the  authority  to  safeguard  in 
practice  the  right  of  a  great  people  who  are  at  peace  and 
who  are  desirous  of  exercising  none  but  the  rights  of  peace 
to  follow  the  pursuits  of  peace  in  quietness  and  good  will — 
rights  recognized  time  out  of  mind  by  all  the  civilized  na 
tions  of  the  world.  No  course  of  my  choosing  or  of  theirs 
will  lead  to  war.  War  can  come  only  by  the  wilful  acts 
and  aggressions  of  others. 

You  will  understand  why  I  can  make  no  definite  pro 
posals  or  forecasts  of  action  now  and  must  ask  for  your 
supporting  authority  in  the  most  general  terms.  The  form 
in  which  action  may  become  necessary  cannot  yet  be  fore 
seen.  I  believe  that  the  people  will  be  willing  to  trust  me 
to  act  with  restraint,  with  prudence,  and  in  the  true  spirit 
of  amity  and  good  faith  that  they  have  themselves  dis 
played  throughout  these  trying  months;  and  it  is  in  that 
belief  that  I  request  that  you  will  authorize  me  to  supply 
our  merchant  ships  with  defensive  arms,  should  that  become 
necessary,  and  with  the  means  of  using  them,  and  to  employ 
any  other  instrumentalities  or  methods  that  may  be  neces 
sary  and  adequate  to  protect  our  ships  and  our  people  in 
their  legitimate  and  peaceful  pursuits  on  the  seas.  I  re- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

quest  also  that  you  will  grant  me  at  the  same  time,  along    * 
with  the  powers  I  ask,  a  sufficient  credit  to  enable  me  to 
provide  adequate  means  of  protection  where  they  are  lack 
ing,  including  adequate  insurance  against  the  present  war 
risks. 

I  have  spoken  of  our  commerce  and  of  the  legitimate 
errands  of  our  people  on  the  seas,  but  you  will  not  be  misled 
as  to  my  main  thought,  the  thought  that  lies  beneath  these 
phrases  and  gives  them  dignity  and  weight.  It  is  not  of 
material  interests  merely  that  we  are  thinking.  It  is, 
rather,  of  fundamental  human  rights,  chief  of  all  the  right 
of  life  itself.  I  am  thinking,  not  only  of  the  rights  of 
Americans  to  go  and  come  about  their  proper  business  by 
way  of  the  sea,  but  also  of  something  much  deeper,  much 
more  fundamental  than  that.  I  am  thinking  of  those  rights 
of  humanity  without  which  there  is  no  civilization.  My 
theme  is  of  those  great  principles  of  compassion  and  of  pro 
tection  which  mankind  has  sought  to  throw  about  human 
lives,  the  lives  of  non-combatants.,  the  lives  of  men  who  are 
peacefully  at  work  keeping  the  industrial  processes  of  the 
world  quick  and  vital,  the  lives  of  women  and  children  and 
of  those  who  supply  the  labour  which  ministers  to  their 
sustenance.  We  are  speaking  of  no  selfish  material  rights 
but  of  rights  which  our  hearts  support  and  whose  founda 
tion  is  that  righteous  passion  for  justice  upon  which  all 
law,  all  structures  alike  of  family,  of  state,  and  of  mankind 
must  rest,  as  upon  the  ultimate  base  of  our  existence  and 
our  liberty.  I  cannot  imagine  any  man  with  American 
principles  at  his  heart  hesitating  to  defend  these  things. 

[A  bill  embodying  the  President's  recommendations  was  imme 
diately  introduced  in  both  houses;  but  the  proposal  to  confer  upon 
him  authority  "to  employ  any  other  instrumentalities  or  methods 
that  may  be  necessary"  met  with  objection,  which  caused  the  whole 
measure  to  fail  of  passage  during  the  week  that  remained  before 
the  expiration  of  the  Sixty-fourth  Congress  on  March  4. 

Upon  the  failure  of  the  bill,  President  Wilson  called  the  Sixty- 
fifth  Congress  in  special  session.  Meanwhile  the  Administration 
decided  that  it  possessed  authority  to  arm  ships  for  defense.] 

867 


WOODROW  WILSON'S  SECOND  INAUGURAL 
ADDRESS 

My  Fellow  Citizens: 

The  four  years  which  have  elapsed  since  last  I  stood 
in  this  place  have  been  crowded  with  counsel  and  action  of 
the  most  vital  interest  and  consequence.  Perhaps  no  equal 
period  in  our  history  has  been  so  fruitful  of  important  re 
forms  in  our  economic  and  industrial  life  or  so  full  of 
significant  changes  in  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  our  politi 
cal  action.  We  have  sought  very  thoughtfully  to  set  our 
house  in  order,  correct  the  grosser  errors  and  abuses  of  our 
industrial  life,  liberate  and  quicken  the  processes  of  our 
national  genius  and  energy,  and  lift  our  politics  to  a  broader 
view  of  the  people's  essential  interests.  It  is  a  record  of 
singular  variety  and  singular  distinction.  But  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  review  it.  It  speaks  for  itself  and  will  be  of 
increasing  influence  as  the  years  go  by.  This  is  not  the 
time  for  retrospect.  It  is  time,  rather,  to  speak  our  thoughts 
and  purposes  concerning  the  present  and  the  immediate 
future. 

/  Although  we  have  centered  counsel  and  action  with  such 
Unusual  concentration  and  success  upon  the  great  problems 
/of  domestic  legislation  to  which  we  addressed  ourselves  four 
years  ago,  other  matters  have  more  and  more  forced  them 
selves  upon  our  attention,  matters  lying  outside  our  own 
life  as  a  nation  and  over  which  we  had  no  control,  but 
which,  despite  our  wish  to  keep  free  of  them,  have  drawn 
us  more  and  more  irresistibly  into  their  own  current  and 
'influence. 

It  has  been  impossible  to  avoid  them.  They  have  af 
fected  the  life  of  the  whole  world.  They  have  shaken 
men  everywhere  with  a  passion  and  an  apprehension  they 
never  knew  before.  It  has  been  hard  to  preserve  calm 
counsel  while  the  thought  of  our  own  people  swayed  this 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

way  and  that  under  their  influence.  We  are  a  composite 
and  cosmopolitan  people.  We  are  of  the  blood  of  all  the 
nations  that  are  at  war.  The  currents  of  our  thoughts  as 
well  as  the  currents  of  our  trade  run  quick  at  all  seasons 
back  and  forth  between  us  and  them.  The  war  inevitably 
set  its  mark  from  the  first  alike  upon  our  minds,  our  indus 
tries,  our  commerce,  our  politics,  and  our  social  action.  To 
be  indifferent  to  it  or  independent  of  it  was  out  of  the 
question. 

And  yet  all  the  while  we  have  been  conscious  that  we 
were  not  part  of  it.  In  that  consciousness,  despite  many 
divisions,  we  have  drawn  closer  together.  We  have  been 
deeply  wronged  upon  the  seas,  but  we  have  not  wished  to 
wrong  or  injure  in  return;  have  retained  throughout  the  con 
sciousness  of  standing  in  some  sort  apart,  intent  upon  an 
interest  that  transcended  the  immediate  issues  of  the  war 
itself.  As  some  of  the  injuries  done  us  have  become  in 
tolerable  we  have  still  been  clear  that  we  wished  nothing 
for  ourselves  that  we  were  not  ready  to  demand  for  all 
mankind — fair  dealing,  justice,  the  freedom  to  live  and  be 
at  ease  against  organized  wrong. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  and  with  this  thought  that  we  have 
grown  more  and  more  aware,  more  and  more  certain  that 
the  part  we  wished  to  play  was  the  part  of  those  who  mean 
to  vindicate  and  fortify  peace.  We  have  been  obliged  to 
arm  ourselves  to  make  good  our  claim  to  a  certain  minimum 
of  right  and  of  freedom  of  action.  We  stand  firm  in  armed 
neutrality  since  it  seems  that  in  no  other  way  we  can  dem 
onstrate  what  it  is  we  insist  upon  and  cannot  forego.  We 
may  even  be  drawn  on,  by  circumstances,  not  by  our  own 
purpose  or  desire,  to  a  more  active  assertion  of  our  rights 
as  we  see  them  and  a  more  immediate  association  with  the 
great  struggle  itself.  But  nothing  will  alter  our  thought 
or  our  purpose.  They  are  too  clear  to  be  obscured.  They 
are  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  principles  of  our  national  life 
to  be  altered.  We  desire  neither  conquest  nor  advantage. 

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Presidential  Messages,  'Addresses  and  State  Papers 

We  wish  nothing  that  can  be  had  only  at  the  cost  of  another 
people.  We  have  always  professed  unselfish  purpose  and 
we  covet  the  opportunity  to  prove  that  our  professions  are 
sincere. 

There  are  many  things  still  to  do  at  home,  to  clarify  our 
own  politics  and  give  new  vitality  to  the  industrial  processes 
of  our  own  life,  and  we  shall  do  them  as  time  and  oppor 
tunity  serve;  but  we  realize  that  the  greatest  things  that 
remain  to  be  done  must  be  done  with  the  whole  world  for 
stage  and  in  cooperation  with  the  wide  and  universal  forces 
of  mankind,  and  we  are  making  our  spirits  ready  for  those 
things.  They  will  follow  in  the  immediate  wake  of  the  war 
itself  and  will  set  civilization  up  again.  We  are  provincials 
no  longer.  The  tragical  events  of  the  thirty  months  of  vital 
turmoil  through  which  we  have  just  passed  have  made  us 
citizens  of  the  world.  There  can  be  no  turning  back.  Our 
own  fortunes  as  a  nation  are  involved,  whether  we  would 
have  it  so  or  not. 

And  yet  we  are  not  the  less  Americans  on  that  account. 
We  shall  be  the  more  American  if  we  but  remain  true  to 
the  principles  in  which  we  have  been  bred.  They  are  not 
the  principles  of  a  province  or  of  a  single  continent.  We 
have  known  and  boasted  all  along  that  they  were  the  prin 
ciples  of  a  liberated  mankind.  These,  therefore,  are  the 
things  we  shall  stand  for,  whether  in  war  or  in  peace: 

That  all  nations  are  equally  interested  in  the  peace  of 
the  world  and  in  the  political  stability  of  free  peoples,  and 
equally  responsible  for  their  maintenance; 

That  the  essential  principle  of  peace  is  the  actual  equal 
ity  of  nations  in  all  matters  of  right  or  privilege; 

That  peace  cannot  securely  or  justly  rest  upon  an  armed 
balance  of  power; 

That  governments  derive  all  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed  and  that  no  other  powers  should 
be  supported  by  the  common  thought,  purpose,  or  power 
of  the  family  of  nations. 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

That  the  seas  should  be  equally  free  and  safe  for  the 
use  of  all  peoples,  under  rules  set  up  by  common  agree 
ment  and  consent,  and  that,  so  far  as  practicable,  they 
should  be  accessible  to  all  upon  equal  terms ; 

That  national  armaments  should  be  limited  to  the  neces 
sities  of  national  order  and  domestic  safety; 

That  the  community  of  interest  and  of  power  upon  which 
peace  must  henceforth  depend  imposes  upon  each  nation 
the  duty  of  seeing  to  it  that  all  influences  proceeding  from 
its  own  citizens  meant  to  encourage  or  assist  revolution  in 
other  states  should  be  sternly  and  effectually  suppressed 
and  prevented. 

I  need  not  argue  these  principles  to  you,  my  fellow  coun 
trymen:  they  are  your  own,  part  and  parcel  of  your  own 
thinking  and  your  own  motive  in  affairs.  They  spring  up 
native  amongst  us.  Upon  this  as  a  platform  of  purpose 
and  of  action  we  can  stand  together. 

And  it  is  imperative  that  we  should  stand  together.  We 
are  being  forged  into  a  new  unity  amidst  the  fires  that  now 
blaze  throughout  the  world.  In  their  ardent  heat  we  shall, 
in  God's  providence,  let  us  hope,  be  purged  of  faction  and 
division,  purified  of  the  errant  humors  of  party  and  of 
private  interest,  and  shall  stand  forth  in  the  days  to  come 
with  a  new  dignity  of  national  pride  and  spirit.  Let  each 
man  see  to  it  that  the  dedication  is  in  his  own  heart,  the 
high  purpose  of  the  Nation  in  his  own  mind,  ruler  of  his 
own  will  and  desire. 

I  stand  here  and  have  taken  the  high  and  solemn  oath 
to  which  you  have  been  audience  because  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  chosen  me  for  this  august  delegation 
of  power  and  have  by  their  gracious  judgment  named  me 
their  leader  in  affairs.  '  I  know  now  what  the  task  means. 
I  realize  to  the  full  the  responsibility  which  it  involves. 
I  pray  God  I  may  be  given  the  wisdom  and  the  prudence 
to  do  my  duty  in  the  true  spirit  of  this  great  people.  I  am 
their  servant  and  can  succeed  only  as  they  sustain  and 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

guide  me  by  their  confidence  and  their  counsel.  The  thing 
I  shall  count  upon,  the  thing  without  which  neither  counsel 
nor  action  will  avail,  is  the  unity  of  America — an  America 
united  in  feeling,  in  purpose,  and  in  its  vision  of  duty,  of 
opportunity,  and  of  service.  We  are  to  beware  of  all  men 
who  would  turn  the  tasks  and  the  necessities  of  the  Nation 
to  their  own  private  profit  or  use  them  for  the  building  up 
of  private  power;  beware  that  no  faction  or  disloyal  in 
trigue  break  the  harmony  or  embarrass  the  spirit  of  our 
people;  beware  that  our  Government  be  kept  pure  and  in 
corrupt  in  all  its  parts.  United  alike  in  the  conception 
of  our  duty  and  in  the  high  resolve  to  perform  it  in  the 
face  of  all  men,  let  us  dedicate  ourselves  to  the  great  task 
to  which  we  must  now  set  our  hand.  For  myself  I  beg  your 
tolerance,  your  countenance,  and  your  united  aid.  The 
shadows  that  now  lie  dark  upon  our  path  will  soon  be  dis 
pelled  and  we  shall  walk  with  the  light  all  about  us  if  we 
be  but  true  to  ourselves — to  ourselves  as  we  have  wished 
to  be  known  in  the  counsels  of  the  world  and  in  the  thought 
of  all  those  who  love  liberty  and  justice  and  the  right 
exalted. 

WASHINGTON,  March  5,  1917 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS  ADVISING  THAT  GERMANY'S 
COURSE  BE  DECLARED  WAR  AGAINST  THE  UNITED  STATES 

(Delivered  in  Joint  Session,  April  2,  1917) 

[The  newly  elected  Congress  had  been  called  in  special  session 
by  President  Wilson  (see  page  365).  Neither  Democrats  nor  Re 
publicans  had  a  clear  majority  in  the  House,  but  the  Democrats 
obtained  sufficient  independent  support  to  establish  control.  The 
President  appeared  in  the  evening  of  the  first  day  of  the  special 
session,  and  made  the  following  address:] 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

I  have  called  the  Congress  into  extraordinary  session 
because  there  are  serious,  very  serious,  choices  of  policy  to 

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Woodrotv    Wilson 

be  made,  and  made  immediately,  which  it  was  neither  right 
nor  constitutionally  permissible  that  I  should  assume  the 
responsibility  of  making. 

On  the  third  of  February  last  I  officially  laid  before  you 
the  extraordinary  announcement  of  the   Imperial  German 
Government  that  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  February  it 
was  its  purpose  to  put  aside  all  restraints  of  law  or  of 
humanity  and  use  its  submarines  to  sink  every  vessel  that 
sought  to  approach  either  the  ports  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  or  the  western  coasts  of  Europe  or  any  of  the  ports 
controlled  by  the  enemies  of  Germany  within  the  Mediter 
ranean.     That  had  seemed  to  be  the  object  of  the  German 
submarine  warfare  earlier  in  the  war,  but  since  April  of 
last  year  the  Imperial  Government  had  somewhat  restrained 
the  commanders  of  its  undersea  craft  in  conformity  with  its 
promise  then  given  to  us  that  passenger  boats  should  not  be 
sunk  and  that  due  warning  would  be  given  to  all  other  ves 
sels  which  its  submarines  might  seek  to  destroy,  when  no 
resistance  was  offered  or  escape  attempted,  and  care  taken 
that  their  crews  were  given  at  least  a  fair  chance  to  save 
their  lives  in  their  open  boats.     The  precautions  taken  were 
meagre  and  haphazard  enough,  as  was  proved  in  distressing 
instance  after  instance  in  the  progress  of  the  cruel  and  un 
manly  business,  but  a  certain  degree  of  restraint  was  ob 
served.     The  new  policy  has  swept  every  restriction  aside. 
Vessels  of  every  kind,  whatever  their  flag,  their  character, 
their  cargo,  their  destination,  their  errand,  have  been  ruth 
lessly   sent   to   the   bottom   without   warning   and   without 
thought  of  help  or  mercy  for  those  on  board,  the  vessels  of 
friendly  neutrals  along  with  those  of  belligerents.     Even 
hospital  ships  and  ships  carrying  relief  to  the  sorely  be 
reaved  and  stricken  people  of  Belgium,  though  the  latter 
were  provided  with  safe  conduct  through  the  proscribed 
areas  by  the  German  Government  itself  and  were  distin 
guished  by  unmistakable  marks  of  identity,  have  been  sunk 
with  the  same  reckless  lack  of  compassion  or  of  principle. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

I  was  for  a  little  while  unable  to  believe  that  such  things 
would  in  fact  be  done  by  any  government  that  had  hitherto 
subscribed  to  the  humane  practices  of  civilized  nations. 
International  law  had  its  origin  in  the  attempt  to  set  up 
some  law  which  would  be  respected  and  observed  upon  the 
seas,  where  no  nation  had  right  of  dominion  and  where 
lay  the  free  highways  of  the  world.  By  painful  stage 
after  stage  has  that  law  been  built  up,  with  meagre  enough 
results,  indeed,  after  all  was  accomplished  that  could  be  ac 
complished,  but  always  with  a  clear  view,  at  least,  of  what 
the  heart  and  conscience  of  mankind  demanded.  This  mini 
mum  of  right  the  German  Government  has  swept  aside 
under  the  plea  of  retaliation  and  necessity  and  because  it 
had  no  weapons  which  it  could  use  at  sea  except  these 
which  it  is  impossible  to  employ  as  it  is  employing  them 
without  throwing  to  the  winds  all  scruples  of  humanity  or 
of  respect  for  the  understandings  that  were  supposed  to 
tmderlie  the  intercourse  of  the  world.  I  am  not  now  think 
ing  of  the  loss  of  property  involved,  immense  and  serious 
as  that  is,  but  only  of  the  wanton  and  wholesale  destruc 
tion  of  the  lives  of  non-combatants,  men,  women,  and 
(children,  engaged  in  pursuits  which  have  always,  even  in 
fhe  darkest  periods  of  modern  history,  been  deemed  inno 
cent  and  legitimate.  Property  can  be  paid  for;  the  lives 
i  of  peaceful  and  innocent  people  cannot  be.  The  present 
German  submarine  warfare  against  commerce  is  a  warfare 
against  mankind. 

It  is  a  war  against  all  nations.  American  ships  have 
been  sunk,  American  lives  taken,  in  ways  which  it  has 
stirred  us  very  deeply  to  learn  of,  but  the  ships  and  people 
of  other  neutral  and  friendly  nations  have  been  sunk  and 
overwhelmed  in  the  waters  in  the  same  way.  There  has 
been  no  discrimination.  The  challenge  is  to  all  mankind. 
Each  nation  must  decide  for  itself  how  it  will  meet  it.  The 
choice  we  make  for  ourselves  must  be  made  with  a  modera 
tion  of  counsel  and  a  temperateness  of  judgment  befitting 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

our  character  and  our  motives  as  a  nation.  We  must  put 
excited  feeling  away.  Our  motive  will  not  be  revenge  or 
the  victorious  assertion  of  the  physical  might  of  the  nation, 
but  only  the  vindication  of  right,  of  human  right,  of  which 
we  are  only  a  single  champion. 

When  I  addressed  the  Congress  on  the  twenty-sixth  of 
February  last  I  thought  that  it  would  suffice  to  assert  our 
neutral  rights  with  arms,  our  right  to  use  the  seas  against 
unlawful  interference,  our  right  to  keep  our  people  safe 
against  unlawful  violence.  But  armed  neutrality,  it  now 
appears,  is  impracticable.  Because  submarines  are  in  ef 
fect  outlaws  when  used  as  the  German  submarines  have 
been  used  against  merchant  shipping,  it  is  impossible  to 
defend  ships  against  their  attacks  as  the  law  of  nations 
has  assumed  that  merchantmen  would  defend  themselves 
against  privateers  or  cruisers,  visible  craft  giving  chase 
upon  the  open  sea.  It  is  common  prudence  in  such  circum 
stances,  grim  necessity  indeed,  to  endeavour  to  destroy 
them  before  they  have  shown  their  own  intention.  They 
must  be  dealt  with  upon  sight,  if  dealt  with  at  all.  The 
German  Government  denies  the  right  of  neutrals  to  use 
arms  at  all  within  the  areas  of  the  sea  which  it  has  pro 
scribed,  even  in  the  defense  of  rights  which  no  modern 
publicist  has  ever  before  questioned  their  right  to  defend. 
The  intimation  is  conveyed  that  the  armed  guards  which 
we  have  placed  on  our  merchant  ships  will  be  treated  as 
beyond  the  pale  of  law  and  subject  to  be  dealt  with  as 
pirates  would  be.  Armed  neutrality  is  ineffectual  enough 
at  best;  in  such  circumstances  and  in  the  face  of  such 
pretensions  it  is  worse  than  ineffectual;  it  is  likely  only 
to  produce  what  it  was  meant  to  prevent;  it  is  practically 
certain  to  draw  us  into  the  war  without  either  the  rights  or 
the  effectiveness  of  belligerents.  There  is  one  choice  we 
cannot  make,  we  are  incapable  of  making:  we  will  not 
choose  the  path  of  submission  and  suffer  the  most  sacred 
rights  of  our  nation  and  our  people  to  be  ignored  or  vio- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

lated.  The  wrongs  against  which  we  now  array  ourselves 
are  no  common  wrongs:  they  cut  to  the  very  roots  of 
human  life. 

With  a  profound  sense  of  the  solemn  and  even  tragical 
character  of  the  step  I  am  taking  and  of  the  grave  respon 
sibilities  which  it  involves,  but  in  unhesitating  obedience 
to  what  I  deem  my  constitutional  duty,  I  advise  that  the 
Congress  declare  the  recent  course  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government  to  be  in  fact  nothing  less  than  war  against 
the  government  and  people  of  the  United  States;  that  it 
formally  accept  the  status  of  belligerent  which  has  thus 
been  thrust  upon  it;  and  that  it  take  immediate  steps  not 
only  to  put  the  country  in  a  more  thorough  state  of  defense 
but  also  to  exert  all  its  power  and  employ  all  its  resources 
to  bring  the  Government  of  the  German  Empire  to  terms 
and  end  the  war. 

What  this  will  involve  is  clear.  It  will  involve  the  ut 
most  practicable  cooperation  in  counsel  and  action  with  the 
governments  now  at  war  with  Germany,  and,  as  incident  to 
that,  the  extension  to  those  governments  of  the  most  liberal 
financial  credits,  in  order  that  our  resources  may  so  far  as 
possible  be  added  to  theirs.  It  will  involve  the  organiza 
tion  and  mobilization  of  all  the  material  resources  of  the 
country  to  supply  the  materials  of  war  and  serve  the  inci 
dental  needs  of  the  nation  in  the  most  abundant  and  yet 
the  most  economical  and  efficient  way  possible.  It  will  in 
volve  the  immediate  full  equipment  of  the  navy  in  all  re 
spects  but  particularly  in  supplying  it  with  the  best  means 
of  dealing  with  the  enemy's  submarines.  It  will  involve  the 
immediate  addition  to  the  armed  forces  of  the  United  States 
already  provided  for  by  law  in  case  of  war  at  least  five 
hundred  thousand  men,  who  should,  in  my  opinion,  be 
chosen  upon  the  principle  of  universal  liability  to  service, 
and  also  the  authorization  of  subsequent  additional  incre 
ments  of  equal  force  so  soon  as  they  may  be  needed  and  can 
be  handled  in  training.  It  will  involve  also,  of  course,  the 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

granting  of  adequate  credits  to  the  Government,  sustained, 
I  hope,  so  far  as  they  can  equitably  be  sustained  by  the 
present  generation,  by  well  conceived  taxation. 

I  say  sustained  so  far  as  may  be  equitable  by  taxation 
because  it  seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  most  unwise  to  base 
the  credits  which  will  now  be  necessary  entirely  on  money 
borrowed.  It  is  our  duty,  I  most  respectfully  urge,  to 
protect  our  people  so  far  as  we  may  against  the  very  serious 
hardships  and  evils  which  would  be  likely  to  arise  out  of 
the  inflation  which  would  be  produced  by  vast  loans. 

In  carrying  out  the  measures  by  which  these  things  are 
to  be  accomplished  we  should  keep  constantly  in  mind  the 
wisdom  of  interfering  as  little  as  possible  in  our  own  prep 
aration  and  in  the  equipment  of  our  own  military  forces 
with  the  duty, — for  it  will  be  a  very  practical  duty, — of 
supplying  the  nations  already  at  war  with  Germany  with 
the  materials  which  they  can  obtain  only  from  us  or  by  our 
assistance.  They  are  in  the  field  and  we  should  help  them 
in  every  way  to  be  effective  there. 

I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  suggesting,  through  the  sev 
eral  executive  departments  of  the  Government,  for  the  con 
sideration  of  your  committees,  measures  for  the  accomplish 
ment  of  the  several  objects  I  have  mentioned.  I  hope  that 
it  will  be  your  pleasure  to  deal  with  them  as  having  been 
framed  after  very  careful  thought  by  the  branch  of  the 
Government  upon  which  the  responsibility  of  conducting 
the  war  and  safeguarding  the  nation  will  most  directly  fall. 

While  we  do  these  things,,  these  deeply  momentous  things, 
let  us  be  very  clear,  and  make  very  clear  to  all  the  world 
what  our  motives  and  our  objects  are.  My  own  thought 
has  not  been  driven  from  its  habitual  and  normal  cour^ 
by  the  unhappy  events  of  the  last  two  months,  and  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  thought  of  the  nation  has  been  altered  or 
clouded  by  them.  I  have  exactly  the  same  things  in  mind 
now  that  I  had  in  mind  when  I  addressed  the  Senate  on  the 
twenty-second  of  January  last;  the  same  that  I  had  in 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

mind  when  I  addressed  the  Congress  on  the  third  of  Febru 
ary  and  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  February.  Our  object  now, 
as  then,  is  to  vindicate  the  principles  of  peace  and  justice 
in  the  life  of  the  world  as  against  selfish  and  autocratic 
power  and  to  set  up  amongst  the  really  free  and  self-gov 
erned  peoples  of  the  world  such  a  concert  of  purpose  and 
of  action  as  will  henceforth  ensure  the  observance  of  those 
principles.  Neutrality  is  no  longer  feasible  or  desirable 
where  the  peace  of  the  world  is  involved  and  the  freedom 
of  its  peoples,  and  the  menace  to  that  peace  and  freedom 
lies  in  the  existence  of  autocratic  governments  backed  by 
organized  force  which  is  controlled  wholly  by  their  will,  not 
by  the  will  of  their  people.  We  have  seen  the  lasi  »f  neu 
trality  in  such  circumstances.  We  are  at  the  beginning 
of  an  age  in  which  it  will  be  insisted  that  the  same  stand 
ards  of  conduct  and  responsibility  for  wrong  done  shall  be 
observed  among  nations  and  their  governments  that  are 
observed  among  the  individual  citizens  of  civilized  states. 
We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people.  We  have 
no  feeling  towards  them  but  one  of  sympathy  and  friend 
ship.  It  was  not  upon  their  impulse  that  their  government 
acted  in  entering  this  war.  It  was  not  with  their  previous 
knowledge  or  approval.  It  was  a  war  determined  upon  as 
wars  used  to  be  determined  upon  in  the  old,  unhappy  days 
when  peoples  were  nowhere  consulted  by  their  rulers  and 
wars  were  provoked  and  waged  in  the  interest  of  dynasties 
or  of  little  groups  of  ambitious  men  who  were  accustomed 
to  use  their  fellow  men  as  pawns  and  tools.  Self-governed 
nations  do  not  fill  their  neighbour  states  with  spies  or  set 
the  course  of  intrigue  to  bring  about  some  critical  posture— 
of  affairs  which  will  give  them  an  opportunity  to  strike  and 
make  conquest.  Such  designs  can  be  successfully  worked 
out  only  under  cover  and  where  no  one  has  the  right  to  ask 
questions.  Cunningly  contrived  plans  of  deception  or  ag 
gression,  carried,  it  may  be,  from  generation  to  generation, 
can  be  worked  out  and  kept  from  the  light  only  within  the 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

privacy  of  courts  or 'behind  the  carefully  guarded  confi 
dences  of  a  narrow  and  privileged  class.  They  are  hap 
pily  impossible  where  public  opinion  commands  and  insists 
upon  full  information  concerning  all  the  nation's  affairs. 

A  steadfast  concert  for  peace  can  never  be  maintained 
except  by  a  partnership  of  democratic  nations.  No  auto 
cratic  go vermnenT' could  be  trusted  to  keep  faith  within 
it  or  observe  its  covenants.  It  must  be  a  leaguj^ofjionour,  If 
a  partnership  of  opinion.  Intrigue  would  eat  its  vitals  ' 
away;  Ihe  jpTottings^oTf  inner  circles  who  could  plan  what 
they  would  and  render  account  to  no  one  would  be  a  corrup 
tion  seated  at  its  very  heart.  Only  free  peoples  can  hold 
their  purpose  and  their  honour  steady  to  a  common  end  and 
prefer  the  interests  of  mankind  to  any  narrow  interest 
of  their  own. 

Does  not  every  American  feel  that  assurance  has  been 
added  to  our  hope  for  the  future  peace  of  the  world  by 
the  wonderful  and  heartening  things  that  have  been  hap 
pening  within  the  last  few  weeks  in  Russia?  Russia  was 
known  by  those  who  knew  it  best  to  have  been  always  in 
fact  democratic  at  heart,  in  all  the  vital  habits  of  her 
thought,  in  all  the  intimate  relationships  of  her  people  that 
spoke  their  natural  instinct,  their  habitual  attitude  towards 
life.  The  autocracy  that  crowned  the  summit  of  her  po 
litical  structure,  long  as  it  had  stood  and  terrible  as  was 
the  reality  of  its  power,  was  not  in  fact  Russian  in  origin, 
character,  or  purpose;  and  now  it  has  been  shaken  off  and 
the  great,  generous  Russian  people  have  been  added  in  all 
their  naive  majesty  and  might  to  the  forces  that  are  fighting 
for  freedom  in  the  world,  for  justice,  and  for  peace.  Here 
is  a  fit  partner  for  a  League  of  Honour. 

One  of  the  things  that  has  served  to  convince  us  that 1 
the   Prussian  autocracy  was   not  and   could  never  be   our 
friend  is  that  from  the  very  outset  of  the  present  war  it 
has  filled  our  unsuspecting  communities  and  even  our  offices 
of  government  with  spies  and  set  criminal  intrigues  every- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

'  \  where  afoot  against  our  national  unity  of  counsel,  our 
peace  within  and  without,  our  industries  and  our  commerce. 
Indeed  it  is  now  evident  that  its  spies  were  here  even  be 
fore  the  war  began;  and  it  is  unhappily  not  a  matter  of 
conjecture  but  a  fact  proved  in  our  courts  of  justice  that 
the  intrigues  which  have  more  than  once  come  perilously 
near  to  disturbing  the  peace  and  dislocating  the  industries 
of  the  country  have  been  carried  on  at  the  instigation, 
with  the  support,  and  even  under  the  personal  direction  of 
official  agents  of  the  Imperial  Government  accredited  to 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  Even  in  checking 
these  things  and  trying  to  extirpate  them  we  have  sought 
to  put  the  most  generous  interpretation  possible  upon  them 
because  we  knew  that  their  source  lay,  not  in  any  hostile 
feeling  or  purpose  of  the  German  people  towards  us  (who 
were,  no  doubt,  as  ignorant  of  them  as  we  ourselves  were), 
but  only  in  the  selfish  designs  of  a  Government  that  did 
what  it  pleased  and  told  its  people  nothing.  But  they  have 
played  their  part  in  serving  to  convince  us  at  last  that  that 
Government  entertains  no  real  friendship  for  us  and  means 
to  act  against  our  peace  and  security  at  its  convenience. 
/That  it  means  to  stir  up  enemies  against  us  at  our  very 
doors  the  intercepted  note  to  the  German  Minister  at 
jMexico  City  is  eloquent  evidence. 

We  are  accepting  this  challenge  of  hostile  purpose  be 
cause  we  know  that  in  such  a  government,  following  such 
methods,  we  can  never  have  a  friend ;  and  that  in  the  pres 
ence  of  its  organized  power,  always  lying  in  wait  to  accom 
plish  we  know  not  what  purpose,  there  can  be  no  assured 
security  for  the  democratic  governments  of  the  world.  We 
are  now  about  to  accept  gauge  of  battle  with  this  natural 
foe  to  liberty  and  shall,  if  necessary,  spend  the  whole  force 
of  the  nation  to  check  and  nullify  its  pretensions  and  its 
power.  We  are  glad,  now  that  we  see  the  facts  with  no 
veil  of  false  pretence  about  them,  to  fight  thus  for  the 
ultimate  peace  of  the  world  and  for  the  liberation  of  its 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

peoples,  the  German  peoples  included:  for  the  rights  of 
nations  great  and  small  and  the  privilege  of  men  every 
where  to  choose  their  way  of  life  and  of  obedience.  The 
world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy.  Its  peace  must 
be  planted  upon  the  tested  foundations  of  political  liberty. 
We  have  no  selfish  ends  to  serve.  We  desire  no  conquest// 
no  dominion.  We  seek  no  indemnities  for  ourselves,  no 
material  compensation  for  the  sacrifices  we  shall  freely 
make.  We  are  but  one  of  the  champions  of  the  rights  of 
mankind.  We  shall  be  satisfied  when  those  rights  have 
been  made  as  secure  as  the  faith  and  the  freedom  of  nations 
can  make  them. 

Just  because  we  fight  without  rancour  and  without  selfish 
object,  seeking  nothing  for  ourselves  but  what  we  shall 
wish  to  share  with  all  free  peoples,  we  shall,  I  feel  confi 
dent,  conduct  our  operations  as  belligerents  without  passion 
and  ourselves  observe  with  proud  punctilio  the  principles 
of  right  and  of  fair  play  we  profess  to  be  fighting  for. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  governments  allied  with  the 
Imperial  Government  of  Germany  because  they  have  not 
made  war  upon  us  or  challenged  us  to  defend  our  right 
and  our  honour.  The  Austro-Hungarian  Government  has, 
indeed,  avowed  its  unqualified  endorsement  and  acceptance 
of  the  reckless  and  lawless  submarine  warfare  adopted  now 
without  disguise  by  the  Imperial  German  Government,  and 
it  has  therefore  not  been  possible  for  this  Government  to 
receive  Count  Tarnowski,  the  Ambassador  recently  ac 
credited  to  this  Government  by  the  Imperial  and  Royal 
Government  of  Austria-Hungary ;  but  that  Government  has 
not  actually  engaged  in  warfare  against  citizens  of  the 
United  States  on  the  seas,  and  I  take  the  liberty,  for  the 
present  at  least,  of  postponing  a  discussion  of  our  relations 
with  the  authorities  at  Vienna.  We  enter  this  war  only 
where  we  are  clearly  forced  into  it  because  there  are  no 
other  means  of  defending  our  rights. 

It  will  be  all  the  easier  for  us  to  conduct  ourselves  as 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

belligerents  in  a  high  spirit  of  right  and  fairness  because 
we  act  without  animus,  not  in  enmity  towards  a  people  or 
with  the  desire  to  bring  any  injury  or  disadvantage  upon 
them,  but  only  in  armed  opposition  to  an  irresponsible  gov 
ernment  which  has  thrown  aside  all  considerations  of  hu 
manity  and  of  right  and  is  running  amuck.  We  are,  let 
me  say  again,  the  sincere  friends  of  the  German  people, 
and  shall  desire  nothing  so  much  as  the  early  re-establish 
ment  of  intimate  relations  of  mutual  advantage  between 
us, — however  hard  it  may  be  for  them,  for  the  time  being, 
to  believe  that  this  is  spoken  from  our  hearts.  We  have 
borne  with  their  present  government  through  all  these  bitter 
months  because  of  that  friendship, — exercising  a  patience 
and  forbearance  which  would  otherwise  have  been  impos 
sible.  We  shall,  happily,  still  have  an  opportunity  to  prove 
that  friendship  in  our  daily  attitude  and  actions  towards 
the  millions  of  men  and  women  of  German  birth  and  native 
sympathy  who  live  amongst  us  and  share  our  life,;  and  we 
shall  be  proud  to  prove  it  towards  all  who  are  in  fact  loyal 
to  their  neighbours  and  to  the  Government  in  the  hour  of 
test.  They  are,  most  of  them,  as  true  and  loyal  Americans 
as  if  they  had  never  known  any  other  fealty  or  allegiance. 
They  will  be  prompt  to  stand  with  us  in  rebuking  and  re 
straining  the  few  who  may  be  of  a  different  mind  and 
purpose.  If  there  should  be  disloyalty,  it  will  be  dealt 
with  with  a  firm  hand  of  stern  repression;  but,  if  it  lifts 
its  head  at  all,  it  will  lift  it  only  here  and  there  and  without 
countenance  except  from  a  lawless  and  malignant  few. 

It  is  a  distressing  and  oppressive  duty,  Gentlemen  of  the 
Congress,  which  I  have  performed  in  thus  addressing  you. 
There  are,  it  may  be,  many  months  of  fiery  trial  and  sacri 
fice  ahead  of  us.  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  lead  this  great 
peaceful  people  into  war,  into  the  most  terrible  and  disas 
trous  of  all  wars,  civilization  itself  seeming  to  be  in  the 
balance.  But  the  right  is  more  precious  than  peace,  and 
we  shall  fight  for  the  things  which  we  have  always  carried 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

nearest  our  hearts,  for  democracy,  for  the  right  of  those 
who  submit  to  authority  to  have  a  voice  in  their  own  gov 
ernments,  for  the  rights  and  liberties  of  small  nations,  for 
a  universal  dominion  of  right  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peo 
ples  as  shall  bring  peace  and  safety  to  all  nations  and  make 
the  world  itself  at  last  free.  To  such  a  task  we  can  dedi 
cate  our  lives  and  our  fortunes,  everything  that  we  are  and 
everything  that  we  have,  with  the  pride  of  those  who  know 
that  the  day  has  come  when  America  is  privileged  to  spend 
her  blood  and  her  might  for  the  principles  that  gave  her 
birth  and  happiness  and  the  peace  which  she  has  treasured. 
God  helping  her,  she  can  do  no  other. 

[The  President's  recommendation — that  "Congress  declare  the 
recent  course  of  the  Imperial  German  Government  to  be  in  fact 
nothing  less  than  war  against  the  government  and  people  of  the 
United  States" — was  immediately  carried  out.  The  address  was 
made  on  the  evening  of  April  2.  On  April  4  the  Senate  adopted 
the  war  resolution,  by  vote  of  82  to  6.  The  House  completed  its 
action  at  3  a.  m.  on  the  morning  of  April  6,  by  vote  of  373  to  50; 
and  shortly  after  noofi  on  that  day  President  Wilson  attached  his 
signature.] 


PROCLAMATION  OF  STATE  OF  WAR  AND  OF  ALIEN  ENEMY 
REGULATIONS,  APRIL  6,  1917 

Whereas  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  in  the  exer 
cise  of  the  constitutional  authority  vested  in  them  have 
resolved,  by  joint  resolution  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  bearing  date  this  day  "That  the  state  of 
war  between  the  United  States  and  the  Imperial  German 
Government  which  has  been  thrust  upon  the  United  States 
is  hereby  formally  declared: 

Whereas  it  is  provided  by  Section  four  thousand  and 
sixty-seven  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  as  follows: 

Whenever  there  is  declared  a  war  between  the  United  States 
and  any  foreign  nation  or  government,  or  any  invasion  of  preda 
tory  incursion  is  perpetrated,  attempted,  or  threatened  against 
the  territory  of  the  United  States,  by  any  foreign  nation  or  gov- 

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ernment,  and  the  President  makes  public  proclamation  of  the 
event,  all  natives,  citizens,  denizens,  or  subjects  of  the  hostile 
nation  or  government,  being  males  of  the  age  of  fourteen  years 
and  upwards,  who  shall  be  within  the  United  States,  and  not  ac 
tually  naturalized,  shall  be  liable  to  be  apprehended,  restrained, 
secured,  and  removed,  as  alien  enemies.  The  President  is  author 
ized,  in  any  such  event,  by  his  proclamation  thereof,  or  other  public 
act  ,to  direct  the  conduct  to  be  observed,  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  toward  the  aliens  who  become  so  liable;  the  manner  and 
degree  of  the  restraint  to  which  they  shall  be  subject,  and  in  what 
cases,  and  upon  what  security  their  residence  shall  be  permitted, 
and  to  provide  for  the  removal  of  those  who,  not  being  permitted 
to  reside  within  the  United  States,  refuse  or  neglect  to  depart 
therefrom;  and  to  establish  any  other  regulations  which  are  found 
necessary  in  the  premises  and  for  the  public  safety; 

Whereas,  by  Sections  four  thousand  and  sixty-eight,  four 
thousand  and  sixty-nine,  and  four  thousand  and  seventy,  of 
the  Revised  Statutes,  further  provision  is  made  relative  to 
alien  enemies; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  do  hereby  proclaim  to  all  whom 
it  may  concern  that  a  state  of  war  exists  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Imperial  German  Government;  and  I  do 
specially  direct  all  officers,  civil  or  military,  of  the  United 
States  that  they  exercise  vigilance  and  zeal  in  the  discharge 
of  the  duties  incident  to  such  a  state  of  war;  and  I  do, 
moreover,  earnestly  appeal  to  all  American  citizens  that 
they,  in  loyal  devotion  to  their  country,  dedicated  from  its 
foundation  to  the  principles  of  liberty  and  justice,  uphold 
the  laws  of  the  land,  and  give  undivided  and  willing  sup 
port  to  those  measures  which  may  be  adopted  by  the  con 
stitutional  authorities  in  prosecuting  the  war  to  a  successful 
issue  and  in  obtaining  a  secure  and  just  peace; 

And,  acting  under  and  by  virtue  of  the  authority  vested 
in  me  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the 
said  sections  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  I  do  hereby  further 
proclaim  and  direct  that  the  conduct  to  be  observed  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States  towards  all  natives,  citizens,  deni 
zens,  or  subjects  of  Germany,  being  males  of  the  age  of 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

fourteen  years  and  upwards,  who  shall  be  within  the  United 
States  and  not  actually  naturalized,  who  for  the  purpose  of 
this  proclamation  and  under  such  sections  of  the  Revised1 
Statutes  are  termed  alien  enemies,  shall  be  as  follows : 

All  alien  enemies  are  enjoined  to  preserve  the  peace 
towards  the  United  States  and  to  refrain  from  crime  against 
the  public  safety,  and  from  violating  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  States  and  Territories  thereof,  and  to 
refrain  from  actual  hostility  or  giving  information,  aid  or 
comfort  to  the  enemies  of  the  United  States,  and  to  comply 
strictly  with  the  regulations  which  are  hereby  or  which  may 
be  from  time  to  time  promulgated  by  the  President;  and  so 
long  as  they  shall  conduct  themselves  in  accordance  with 
law,  they  shall  be  undisturbed  in  the  peaceful  pursuit  of 
their  lives  and  occupations  and  be  accorded  the  considera 
tion  due  to  all  peaceful  and  law-abiding  persons,  except  so 
far  as  restrictions  may  be  necessary  for  their  own  pro 
tection  and  for  the  safety  of  the  United  States ;  and  towards 
such  alien  enemies  as  conduct  themselves  in  accordance  with 
law,  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  enjoined  to  pre 
serve  the  peace  and  to  treat  them  with  all  such  friendliness 
as  may  be  compatible  with  loyalty  and  allegiance  to  the 
United  States 

And  all  alien  enemies  who  fail  to  conduct  themselves 
as  so  enjoined,  in  addition  to  all  other  penalties  prescribed 
by  law,  shall  be  liable  to  restraint,  or  to  give  security,  or 
to  remove  and  depart  from  the  United  States  in  the  manner 
prescribed  by  Sections  four  thousand  and  sixty-nine  and 
four  thousand  and  seventy  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  and  as 
prescribed  in  the  regulations  duly  promulgated  by  the 
President ; 

And  pursuant  to  the  authority  vested  in  me,  I  hereby 
declare  and  establish  the  following  regulations,  which  I  find 
necessary  in  the  premises  and  for  the  public  safety: 

(1)  An  alien  enemy  shall  not  have  in  his  possession,  at  any 
time  or  place,  any  firearm,  weapon,  or  implement  of  war,  or  com- 

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ponent  part  thereof,  ammunition,  maxim  or  other  silencer,  bomb 
or  explosive  or  material  used  in  the  manufacture  of  explosives; 

(2)  An   alien   enemy  shall   not  have   in  his   possession   at   any 
time  or  place  or  use  or  operate  any  aircraft  or  wireless  apparatus, 
or  any  form  of  signalling  device,  or  any  form  of  cipher  code,  or 
any  paper,   document   or   ^ook   written   or   printed   in   cipher   or 
in  which  there  may  be  invisible  writing. 

(3)  All  property  found  in  the  possession  of  an  alien  enemy  in 
violation  of  the  foregoing  regulations  shall  be  subject  to  seizure 
by  the  United  States; 

(4)  An   alien   enemy   shall   not   approach   or   be   found   within 
one-half  of  a  mile  of  any  Federal  or  State   fort,  camp,  arsenal, 
aircraft  station,  Government  or  naval  vessel,  navy  yard,  factory, 
or  workshop  for  the  manufacture  of  munitions  of  war  or  of  any 
products  for  the  use  of  the  army  or  navy; 

(5)  An  alien  enemy  shall  not  write,  print,  or  publish  any  attack 
or   threats   against   the   Government   or   Congress   of  the   United 
States,  or  either  branch  thereof,  or  against  the  measures  or  policy 
of  the  United  States,  or  against  the  person  or  property  of  any 
person  in  the  military,  naval,  or  civil  service  of  the  United  States, 
or  of  the  States  or  Territories,  or  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
or  of  the  municipal  governments  therein; 

(6)  An  alien  enemy  shall  not  commit  or  abet  any  hostile  act 
against  the  United  States,  or  give  information,  aid,  or  comfort 
to  its  enemies; 

(7)  An  alien  enemy  shall  not  reside  in  or  continue  to  reside  in, 
to  remain  in,  or  enter  any  locality  which  the  President  may  from 
time  to  time  designate  by  Executive  Order  as  a  prohibited  area 
in  which  residence  by  an  alien  enemy  shall  be  found  by  him  to 
constitute  a  danger  to  tRe  public  peace  and  safety  of  the  United 
States,  except  by  permit   from  the   President  and   except  under 
such  limitations  or  restrictions  as  the  President  may  prescribe; 

(8)  An  alien  enemy  whom  the  President  shall  have  reasonable 
cause  to  believe  to  be  aiding  or  about  to  aid  the  enemy,  or  to  be 
at  large  to  the  danger  of  the  public  peace  or  safety  of  the  United 
States,  or  to  have  violated  or  to  be  about  to  violate  any  of  these 
regulations,  shall  remove  to  any  location  designated  by  the  Presi 
dent  by  Executive  Order,  and  shall  not  remove  therefrom  without 
a  permit,  or  shall  depart  from  the  United  States  if  so  required 
by  the  President; 

(9)  No  alien  enemy  shall  depart  from  the  United  States  until 
he  shall  have  received  such  permit  as  the  President  shall  prescribe, 
or  except  under  order  of  a  court,  judge,  or  justice,  under  Sec 
tions  4069  and  4070  of  the  Revised  Statutes; 

(10)  No  alien  enemy  shall  land  in  or  enter  the  United  States, 
except  under  such  restrictions  and  at  such  places  as  the  President 
may  prescribe; 

(11)  If  necessary  to  prevent  violations  of  these  regulations,  all 
alien  enemies  will  be  obliged  to  register; 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

(12)  An  alien  enemy  whom  there  may  be  reasonable  cause  to 
believe  to  be  aiding  or  about  to  aid  the  enemy,  or  who  may  be 
at  large  to  the  danger  of  the  public  peace  or  safety,  or  who  vio 
lates  or  attempts  to  violate,  or  of  whom  there  is  reasonable  ground 
to  believe  that  he  is  about  to  violate,  any  regulation  duly  promul 
gated  by  the  President,  or  any  criminal  law  of  the  United  States, 
or  of  the  States  or  Territories  thereof,  will  be  subject  to  summary 
arrest  by  the  United  States  Marshal,  or  his  deputy,  or  such  other 
officer  as  the  President  shall  designate,  and  to  confinement  in  such 
penitentiary,  prison,  jail,  military  camp,  or  other  place  of  deten 
tion  as  may  be  directed  by  the  President. 

This  proclamation  and  the  regulations  herein  contained 
shall  extend  and  apply  to  all  land  and  water,  continental  or 
insular,  in  any  way  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States. 

IK  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  sixth  day  of  April,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen,  and 
of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and 
forty-first. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  His  FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN  ON  WAYS 
TO  SERVE  THE  NATION  DURING  THE  WAR 

(A  Proclamation,  April  16,  1917) 

My  Fellow-Countrymen: 

The  entrance  of  our  own  beloved  country  into  the  grim 
and  terrible  war  for  democracy  and  human  rights  which 
has  shaken  the  world  creates  so  many  problems  of  national 
life  and  action  which  call  for  immediate  consideration  and 
settlement  that  I  hope  you  will  permit  me  to  address  to 
you  a  few  words  of  earnest  counsel  and  appeal  with  regard 
to  them. 

We  are  rapidly  putting  our  navy  upon  an  efficient  war 
footing  and  are  about  to  create  and  equip  a  great  army, 
but  these  are  the  simplest  parts  of  the  great  task  to  which 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

we  have  addressed  ourselves.  There  is  not  a  single  selfish 
element,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  in  the  cause  we  are  fighting 
for.  We  are  fighting  for  what  we  believe  and  wish  to  be 
the  rights  of  mankind  and  for  the  future  peace  and  security 
of  the  world.  To  do  this  great  thing  worthily  and  success 
fully  we  must  devote  ourselves  to  the  service  without  regard 
to  profit  or  material  advantage  and  with  an  energy  and 
intelligence  that  will  rise  to  the  level  of  the  enterprise  itself. 
We  must  realize  to  the  full  how  great  the  task  is  and  how 
many  things,  how  many  kinds  and  elements  of  capacity 
and  service  and  self-sacrifice,  it  involves. 

These,  then,  are  the  things  we  must  do,  and  do  well,  be 
sides  fighting, — the  things  without  which  mere  fighting 
would  be  fruitless: 

We  must  supply  abundant  food  for  ourselves  and  for 
our  armies  and  our  seamen  not  only,  but  also  for  a  large 
part  of  the  nations  with  whom  we  have  now  made  common 
cause,  in  whose  support  and  by  whose  sides  we  shall  be 
fighting;  * 

We  must  supply  ships  by  the  hundreds  out  of  our  ship 
yards  to  carry  to  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  submarines  or 
no  submarines,  what  will  every  day  be  needed  there,  and 
abundant  materials  out  of  our  fields  and  our  mines  and  our 
factories  with  which  not  only  to  clothe  and  equip  our  own 
forces  on  land  and  sea  but  also  to  clothe  and  support  our 
people  for  whom  the  gallant  fellows  under  arms  can  no  lon 
ger  work,  to  help  clothe  and  equip  the  armies  with  which  we 
are  cooperating  in  Europe,  and  to  keep  the  looms  and  manu 
factories  there  in  raw  material ;  coal  to  keep  the  fires  going 
in  ships  at  sea  and  in  the  furnaces  of  hundreds  of  factories 
across  the  sea ;  steel  out  of  which  to  make  arms  and  ammu 
nition  both  here  and  there;  rails  for  worn-out  railways 
back  of  the  fighting  fronts;  locomotives  and  rolling  stock 
to  take  the  place  of  those  every  day  going  to  pieces ;  mules, 
horses,  cattle  for  labor  and  for  military  service;  everything 
with  which  the  people  of  England  and  France  and  Italy 

888 


Woodroiv    Wilson 

and  Russia  have  usually  supplied  themselves  but  cannot 
now  afford  the  men,  the  materials,  or  the  machinery  to  make. 

It  is  evident  to  every  thinking  man  that  our  industries, 
on  the  farms,  in  the  shipyards,  in  the  mines,  in  the  factories, 
must  be  made  more  prolific  and  more  efficient  than  ever 
and  that  they  must  be  more  economically  managed  and 
better  adapted  to  the  particular  requirements  of  our  task 
than  they  have  been;  and  what  I  want  to  say  is  that  the 
men  and  the  women  who  devote  their  thought  and  their 
energy  to  these  things  will  be  serving  the  country  and  con 
ducting  the  fight  for  peace  and  freedom  just  as  truly  and 
just  as  effectively  as  the  men  on  the  battlefield  or  in  the 
trenches.  The  industrial  forces  of  the  country,  men  and 
women  alike,  will  be  a  great  national,  a  great  international, 
Service  Army, — a  notable  and  honored  host  engaged  in  the 
service  of  the  nation  and  the  world,  the  efficient  friends 
and  saviors  of  free  men  everywhere.  Thousands,  nay, 
hundreds  of  thousands,  of  men  otherwise  liable  to  military 
service  will  of  right  and  of  necessity  be  excused  from  that 
service  and  assigned  to  the  fundamental,  sustaining  work 
of  the  fields  and  factories  and  mines,  and  they  will  be  as 
much  part  of  the  great  patriotic  forces  of  the  nation  as 
the  men  under  fire. 

I  take  the  liberty,  therefore,  of  addressing  this  word 
to  the  farmers  of  the  country  and  to  all  who  work  on  the 
farms:  The  supreme  need  of  our  own  nation  and  of  the 
nations  with  which  we  are  cooperating  is  an  abundance  of 
supplies,  and  especially  of  food  stuffs.  The  importance  of 
an  adequate  food  supply,  especially  for  the  present  year, 
is  superlative.  Without  abundant  food,  alike  for  the  armies 
and  the  peoples  now  at  war,  the  whole  great  enterprise 
upon  which  we  have  embarked  will  break,  jdewn  and  fail. 
The  world's  food  reserves  are  low.  Not  only  during  the 
present  emergency  but  for  some  time  after  peace  shall 
have  come  both  our  own  people  and  a  large  proportion  of 
She  .people  of  Europe  must  rely  upon  the  harvests  in 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

America.  Upon  the  farmers  of  this  country,  therefore,  in 
large  measure,  rests  the  fate  of  the  war  and  the  fate  of 
the  nations.  May  the  nation  not  count  upon  them  to  omit 
no  step  that  will  increase  the  production  of  their  land  or 
that  will  bring  about  the  most  effectual  cooperation  in  the 
sale  and  distribution  of  their  products?  The  time  is  short. 
It  is  of  the  most  imperative  importance  that  everything  pos 
sible  be  done  and  done  immediately  to  make  sure  of  large 
harvests.  I  call  upon  young  men  and  old  alike  and  upon 
the  able-bodied  boys  of  the  land  to  accept  and  act  upon 
this  duty — to  turn  in  hosts  to  the  farms  and  make  certain 
that  no  pains  and  no  labor  is  lacking  in  this  great  matter. 

I  particularly  appeal  to  the  farmers  of  the  South  to 
plant  abundant  food  stuffs  as  well  as  cotton.  They  can 
show  their  patriotism  in  no  better  or  more  convincing  way 
than  by  resisting  the  great  temptation  of  the  present  price 
of  cotton  and  helping,  helping  upon  a  great  scale,  to  feed 
the  nation  and  the  peoples  everywhere  who  are  fighting  for 
their  liberties  and  for  our  own.  The  variety  of  their  crops 
will  be  the  visible  measure  of  their  comprehension  of  their 
national  duty. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  and  the  govern 
ments  of  the  several  States  stand  ready  to  cooperate.  They 
will  do  everything  possible  to  assist  farmers  in  securing  an 
adequate  supply  of  seed,  an  adequate  force  of  laborers 
when  they  are  most  needed,  at  harvest  time,  and  the  means 
of  expediting  shipments  of  fertilizers  and  farm  machinery, 
as  well  as  of  the  crops  themselves  when  harvested.  The 
course  of  trade  shall  be  as  unhampered  as  it  is  possible 
to  make  it  and  there  shall  be  no  unwarranted  manipulation 
of  the  nation's  food  supply  by  those  who  handle  it  on  its 
way  to  the  consumer.  This  is  our  .opportunity  to  demon 
strate  the  efficiency  of  a  great  Democracy  and  we  shall  not 
fall  short  of  it ! 

This  let  me  say  to  the  middlemen  of  every  sort,  whether 
they  are  handling  our  food  stuffs  or  our  raw  materials 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

of  manufacture  or  the  products  of  our  mills  and  factories: 
The  eyes  of  the  country  will  be  especially  upon  you.  This 
is  your  opportunity  for  signal  service,  efficient  and  disin 
terested.  The  country  expects  you,  as  it  expects  all  others, 
to  forego  unusual  profits,  to  organize  and  expedite  ship 
ments  of  supplies  of  every  kind,  but  especially  of  food, 
with  an  eye  to  the  service  you  are  rendering  and  in  the 
spirit  of  those  who  enlist  in  the  ranks,  for  their  people, 
not  for  themselves.  I  shall  confidently  expect  you  to  de 
serve  and  win  the  confidence  of  people  of  every  sort  and 
station. 

To  the  men  who  run  the  railways  of  the  country,  whether 
they  be  managers  or  operative  employees,  let  me  say  that 
the  railways  are  the  arteries  of  the  nation's  life  and  that 
upon  them  rests  the  immense  responsibility  of  seeing  to  it 
that  those  arteries  suffer  no  obstruction  of  any  kind,  no 
inefficiency  or  slackened  power.  To  the  merchant  let  me 
suggest  the  motto,  "Small  profits  and  quick  service";  and 
to  the  shipbuilder  the  thought  that  the  life  of  the  war  de 
pends  upon  him.  The  food  and  the  war  supplies  must  be 
carried  across  the  seas  no  matter  how  many  ships  are  sent 
to  the  bottom.  The  places  of  those  that  go  down  must 
be  supplied  and  supplied  at  once.  To  the  miner  let  me 
say  that  he  stands  where  the  farmer  does:  the  work  of 
the  world  waits  on  him.  If  he  slackens  or  fails,  armies 
and  statesmen  are  helpless.  He  also  is  enlisted  in  the  great 
Service  Army.  The  manufacturer  does  not  need  to  be  told, 
I  hope,  that  the  nation  looks  to  him  to  speed  and  perfect 
every  process;  and  I  want  only  to  remind  his  employees 
that  their  service  is  absolutely  indispensable  and  is  counted 
on  by  every  man  who  loves  the  country  and  its  liberties. 

Let  me  suggest,  also,  that  everyone  who  creates  or  cul 
tivates  a  garden  helps,  and  helps  greatly,  to  solve  the  prob 
lem  of  the  feeding  of  the  nations ;  and  that  every  housewife 
who  practices  strict  economy  puts  herself  in  the  ranks  of 
those  who  serve  the  nation.  This  is  the  time  for  America 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to  correct  her  unpardonable  fault  of  wastefulness  and  ex 
travagance.  Let  every  man  and  every  woman  assume  the 
duty  of  careful,  provident  use  and  expenditure  as  a  public 
duty,  as  a  dictate  of  patriotism  which  no  one  can  now  expect 
ever  to  be  excused  or  forgiven  for  ignoring. 

In  the  hope  that  this  statement  of  the  needs  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  world  in  this  hour  of  supreme  crisis  may  stimu 
late  those  to  whom  it  comes  and  remind  all  who  need  re 
minder  of  the  solemn  duties  of  a  time  such  as  the  world 
has  never  seen  before,  I  beg  that  all  editors  and  publishers 
everywhere  will  give  as  prominent  publication  and  as  wide 
circulation  as  possible  to  this  appeal.  I  venture  to  suggest, 
also,  to  all  advertising  agencies  that  they  would  perhaps 
render  a  very  substantial  and  timely  service  to  the  country 
if  they  would  give  it  widespread  repetition.  And  I  hope 
that  clergymen  will  not  think  the  theme  of  it  an  unworthy 
or  inappropriate  subject  of  comment  and  homily  from  their 
pulpits. 

The  supreme  test  of  the  nation  has  come.  We  must  all 
speak,  act,  and  serve  together! 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  AT  DEDICATION  OF  THE  RED 
CROSS  BUILDING,  WASHINGTON,  MAY  12,   1917 

Mr.  Chairman,  Mr.  Secretary,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  gives  me  a  very  deep  gratification  as  the  titular  head 
of  the  American  Red  Cross  to  accept  in  the  name  of  that 
association  this  significant  and  beautiful  gift,  the  gift  of 
the  Government  and  of  private  individuals  who  have  con 
ceived  their  duty  in  a  noble  spirit  and  upon  a  great  scale. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  architecture  of  the  building  to  which 
the  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Baker,  alluded  suggests  some 
thing  very  significant.  There  are  few  buildings  in  Wash- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

ington  more  simple  in  their  lines  and  in  their  ornamenta 
tion  than  the  beautiful  building  we  are  dedicating  this  eve 
ning.  It  breathes  a  spirit  of  modesty  and  seems  to  adorn 
duty  with  its  proper  garment  of  beauty.  It  is  significant 
that  it  should  be  dedicated  to  the  women  who  serve  to  allevi 
ate  suffering  and  comfort  those  who  were  in  need  during 
our  Civil  War,  because  their  thoughtful,  disinterested,  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  is  the  spirit  which  should  always  illus 
trate  the  services  of  the  Red  Cross. 

The  Red  Cross  needs  at  this  time  more  than  it  ever  needed 
before  the  comprehending  support  of  the  American  people 
and  all  the  facilities  which  could  be  placed  at  its  disposal  to 
perform  its  duties  adequately  and  efficiently.  I  believe  that 
the  American  people  perhaps  hardly  yet  realize  the  sacri 
fices  and  sufferings  that  are  before  them.  We  thought  the 
scale  of  our  Civil  War  was  unprecedented,  but  in  compari 
son  with  the  struggle  into  which  we  have  now  entered  the 
Civil  War  seems  almost  insignificant  in  its  proportions  and 
in  its  expenditure  of  treasure  and  of  blood.  And,  there 
fore,  it  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance  that  we  should 
at  the  outset  see  to  it  that  the  American  Red  Cross  is 
equipped  and  prepared  for  the  things  that  lie  before  it. 
It  will  be  our  instrument  to  do  the  works  of  alleviation 
and  of  mercy  which  will  attend  this  struggle.  Of  course, 
the  scale  upon  which  it  shall  act  will  be  greater  than 
the  scale  of  any  other  duty  that  it  has  ever  attempted  to 
perform. 

It  is  in  recognition  of  that  fact  that  the  American  Red 
Cross  has  just  added  to  its  organization  a  small  body  of 
men  whom  it  has  chosen  to  call  its  War  Council — not  be 
cause  they  are  to  counsel  war,  but  because  they  are  to  serve 
in  this  special  war  those  purposes  of  counsel  which  have 
become  so  imperatively  necessary.  Their  first  duty  will  be 
to  raise  a  great  fund  out  of  which  to  draw  the  resources 
for  the  performance  of  their  duty,  and  I  do  not  believe  that 
it  will  be  necessary  to  appeal  to  the  American  people  to  re- 

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spond  to  their  call  for  funds,  because  the  heart  of  this  coun 
try  is  in  this  war,  and  if  the  heart  of  the  country  is  in  the 
war,  its  heart  will  express  itself  in  the  gifts  that  will  be 
poured  out  for  these  humane  purposes. 

I  say  the  heart  of  the  country  is  in  this  war  because  it 
would  not  have  gone  into  it  if  its  heart  had  not  been  pre 
pared  for  it.  It  would  not  have  gone  into  it  if  it  had  not 
first  believed  that  here  was  an  opportunity  to  express  the 
character  of  the  United  States.  We  have  gone  in  with  no 
special  grievance  of  our  own,  because  we  have  always  said 
that  we  were  the  friends  and  servants  of  mankind.  We 
look  for  no  profit.  We  look  for  no  advantage.  We  will  ac 
cept  no  advantage  out  of  this  war.  We  go  because  we  be 
lieve  that  the  very  principles  upon  which  the  American 
Republic  was  founded  are  now  at  stake  and  must  be  vindi 
cated.  In  such  a  contest,  therefore,  we  shall  not  fail  to 
respond  to  the  call  to  service  that  comes  through  the  in 
strumentality  of  this  particular  organization. 

And  I  think  it  not  inappropriate  to  say  this:  There  will 
be  many  expressions  of  the  spirit  of  sympathy  and  mercy 
and  philanthropy,  and  I  think  that  it  is  very  necessary  that 
we  should  not  disperse  our  activities  in  those  lines  too  much ; 
that  we  should  keep  constantly  in  view  the  desire  to  have 
the  utmost  concentration  and  efficiency  of  effort,  and  I  hope 
that  most,  if  not  all  of  the  philanthropic  activities  of  this 
war  may  be  exercised  if  not  through  the  Red  Cross,  then 
through  some  already-constituted  and  experienced  organiza 
tion.  This  is  no  war  for  amateurs.  This  is  no  war  for  mere 
spontaneous  impulse.  It  means  grim  business  on  every  side 
of  it,  and  it  is  the  mere  counsel  of  prudence  that  jn  our 
philanthropy,  as  well  as  in  our  fighting,  we  should  act 
through  the  instrumentalities  already  prepared  to  our  hand 
and  already  experienced  in  the  tasks  which  are  going  to  be 
assigned  to  them.  This  should  be  merely  the  expression 
of  the  practical  genius  of  America  itself,  and  I  believe  that 
the  practical  genius  of  America  will  dictate  that  the  efforts 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

in  this  war  in  this  particular  field  should  be  concentrated  in 
experienced  hands  as  our  efforts  in  other  fields  will  be. 

There  is  another  thing  that  is  significant  and  delightful 
to  my  thought  about  the  fact  that  this  building  should  be 
dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  women  both  of  the  North 
and  of  the  South.  It  is  a  sort  of  landmark  of  the  unity  to 
which  the  people  have  been  brought  so  far  as  any  old  ques 
tion  which  tore  our  hearts  in  days  gone  by  is  concerned; 
and  I  pray  God  that  the  outcome  of  this  struggle  may  be 
that  every  other  element  of  difference  amongst  us  will  be 
obliterated  and  that  some  day  historians  will  remember  these 
momentous  years  as  the  years  which  made  a  single  people 
out  of  the  great  body  of  those  who  call  themselves  Ameri 
cans.  The  evidences  are  already  many  that  this  is  happen 
ing.  The  divisions  which  were  predicted  have  not  occurred 
and  will  not  occur.  The  spirit  of  this  people  is  already 
united  and  when  effort  and  suffering  and  sacrifice  have 
completed  the  union  men  will  no  longer  speak  of  any  lines 
either  of  race  or  of  association  cutting  athwart  the  great 
body  of  this  nation.  So  that  I  feel  that  we  are  now  begin 
ning  the  processes  which  will  some  day  require  another 
beautiful  memorial  erected  to  those  whose  hearts  uniting, 
united  America. 

[The  President's  statement  that  "we  have  gone  in  (into  the  war) 
with  no  special  grievance  of  our  own"  was  later  clarified  by  him  as 
meaning  that  our  grievance  was  the  same  as  that  of  other  neutrals.] 


PRESIDENT   WILSON'S    PROCLAMATION    OF    THE    SELECTIVE 
DRAFT  ACT,  MAY  18,  1917 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  In  the  President's  war  address  to 
Congress,  on  April  2,  he  had  recommended  an  "immediate 
addition  to  the  armed  forces  of  the  United  States  ... 
chosen  upon  the  principle  of  universal  liability  to  service." 
After  full  debate  in  both  branches — with  many  members 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

urging  that  the  voluntary  system  be  tried — Congress  passed 
a  Selective  Draft  Act,  which  President  Wilson  signed  on 
May  18  and  immediately  proclaimed  as  follows:] 

Whereas,  Congress  has  enacted  and  the  President  has  on 
the  18th  day  of  May,  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sev 
enteen,  approved  a  law,  which  contains  the  following  pro 
visions  : 

SECTION  5. — That  all  male  persons  between  the  ages  of  21  and 
30,  both  inclusive,  shall  be  subject  to  registration  in  accordance 
with  regulations  to  be  prescribed  by  the  President:  And  upon 
proclamation  by  the  President  or  other  public  notice  given  by  him 
or  by  his  direction  stating  the  time  and  place  of  such  registra 
tion,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  persons  of  the  designated  ages, 
except  officers  and  enlisted  men  of  the  regular  army,  the  navy, 
and  the  National  Guard  and  Naval  Militia  while  in  the  service  of 
the  United  States,  to  present  themselves  for  and  submit  to  regis 
tration  under  the  provisions  of  this  act:  And  every  such  person 
shall  be  deemed  to  have  notice  of  the  requirements  of  this  act 
upon  the  publication  of  said  proclamation  or  other  notice  as  afore 
said,  given  by  the  President  or  by  his  direction:  And  any  person 
who  shall  willfully  fail  or  refuse  to  present  himself  for  registra 
tion  or  to  submit  thereto  as  herein  provided,  shall  be  guilty  of  a 
misdemeanor  and  shall,  upon  conviction  in  the  District  Court  of 
the  United  States  having  jurisdiction  thereof,  be  punished  by  im 
prisonment  for  not  more  than  one  year,  and  shall  thereupon  be 
duly  registered;  provided  that  in  the  call  of  the  docket  precedence 
shall  be  given,  in  courts  trying  the  same,  to  the  trial  of  criminal 
proceedings  under  this  act;  provided,  further,  that  persons  shall 
be  subject  to  registration  as  herein  provided,  who  shall  have  at 
tained  their  twenty-first  birthday  and  who  shall  not  have  attained 
their  thirty-first  birthday  on  or  before  the  day  set  for  the  regis 
tration;  and  all  persons  so  registered  shall  be  and  remain  subject 
to  draft  into  the  forces  hereby  authorized  unless  excepted  or  ex 
cused  therefrom  as  in  this  act  provided. 

[Here  the  President  also  quoted  sections  of  the  law  relating  to 
the  duties  of  registration  officials.] 

Now,  Therefore,  I  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  call  upon  the  Governor  of  each  of  the 
several  States  and  Territories,  the  Board  of  Commissioners 
of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  all  officers  and  agents  of 
the  several  States  and  Territories.,,  of  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  and  the  counties  and  municipalities  therein,  to  perform 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

certain  duties  in  the  execution  of  the  foregoing  law,  which 
duties  will  be  communicated  to  them  directly  in  regulations 
of  even  date  herewith. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim  and  give  notice  to  all  persons 
subject  to  registration  in  the  several  States  and  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  in  accordance  with  the  above  law,  that  the 
time  and  place  of  such  registration  shall  be  between  7  A.  M. 
and  9  P.  M.  on  the  fifth  day  of  June,  1917,  at  the  registra 
tion  place  in  the  precinct  wherein  they  have  their  per 
manent  homes.  Those  who  shall  have  attained  their  twenty- 
first  birthday  and  who  shall  not  have  attained  their  thirty- 
first  birthday  on  or  before  the  day  here  named  are  required 
to  register,  excepting  only  officers  and  enlisted  men  of  the 
regular  army,  the  navy,  the  Marine  Corps,  and  the  National 
Guard  and  Naval  Militia,  while  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  and  officers  in  the  Officers'  Reserve  Corps  and  en 
listed  men  in  the  Enlisted  Reserve  Corps  while  in  active 
service.  In  the  territories  of  Alaska,  Hawaii,  and  Porto 
Rico  a  day  for  registration  will  be  named  in  a  later  procla 
mation. 

[Here   followed   detailed   instructions   for  registration  of  those 
sick  or  absent  from  their  counties.] 

The  Power  against  which  we  are  arrayed  has  sought  to 
impose  its  will  upon  the  world  by  force.  To  this  end  it  has 
increased  armament  until  it  has  changed  the  face  of  war. 
In  the  sense  in  which  we  have  been  wont  to  think  of  armies, 
there  are  no  armies  in  this  struggle,  there  are  entire  nations 
armed.  Thus,  the  men  who  remain  to  till  the  soil  and  man 
the  factories  are  no  less  a  part  of  the  army  that  is  France 
than  the  men  beneath  the  battle  flags.  It  must  be  so  with 
us.  It  is  not  an  army  that  we  must  shape  and  train  for 
war;  it  is  a  nation. 

To  this  end  our  people  must  draw  close  in  one  compact 
front  against  a  common  foe.  But  this  cannot  be  if  each 
man  pursues  a  private  purpose.  All  must  pursue  one  pur 
pose.  A  nation  needs  all  men;  but  it  needs  each  man,  not 

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in  the  field  that  will  most  pleasure  him,  but  in  the  endeavor 
that  will  best  serve  the  common  good.  Thus,  though  a 
sharpshooter  pleases  to  operate  a  trip-hammer  for  the 
forging  of  great  guns  and  an  expert  machinist  desires  to 
march  with  the  flag,  the  nation  is  being  served  only  when 
the  sharpshooter  marches  and  the  machinist  remains  at  his 
levers. 

The  whole  nation  must  be  a  team,  in  which  each  man 
shall  play  the  part  for  which  he  is  best  fitted.  To  this 
end,  Congress  has  provided  that  the  nation  shall  be  organ 
ized  for  war  by  selection;  that  each  man  shall  be  classified 
for  service  in  the  place  to  which  it  shall  best  serve  the  gen 
eral  good  to  call  him. 

The  significance  of  this  cannot  be  overstated.  It  is  a  new 
thing  in  our  history  and  a  landmark  in  our  progress.  It  is 
a  new  manner  of  accepting  and  vitalizing  our  duty  to  give 
ourselves  with  thoughtful  devotion  to  the  common  purpose 
of  us  all.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  conscription  of  the  unwilling; 
it  is,  rather,  selection  from  a  nation  which  has  volunteered 
in  mass.  It  is  no  more  a  choosing  of  those  who  shall  march 
with  the  colors  than  it  is  a  selection  of  those  who  shall  serve 
an  equally  necessary  and  devoted  purpose  in  the  industries 
that  lie  behind  the  battle  line. 

The  day  here  named  is  the  time  upon  which  all  shall 
present  themselves  for  assignment  to  their  tasks.  It  is  for 
that  reason  destined  to  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  moments  in  our  history.  It  is  nothing  less  than 
the  day  upon  which  the  manhood  of  the  country  shall  step 
forward  in  one  solid  rank  in  defense  of  the  ideals  to  which 
this  nation  is  consecrated.  It  is  important  to  those  ideals 
no  less  than  to  the  pride  of  this  generation  in  manifesting 
its  devotion  to  them,  that  there  be  no  gaps  in  the  ranks. 

It  is  essential  that  the  day  be  approached  in  thoughtful 
apprehension  of  its  significance,  and  that  we  accord  to  it 
the  honor  and  the  meaning  that  it  deserves.  Our  industrial 
need  prescribes  that  it  be  not  made  a  technical  holiday,  but 


Woodrow    Wilson 

the  stern  sacrifice  that  is  before  us  urges  that  it  be  carried 
in  all  our  hearts  as  a  great  day  of  patriotic  devotion  and 
obligation,  when  the  duty  shall  lie  upon  every  man,  whether 
he  is  himself  to  be  registered  or  not,  to  see  to  it  that  the 
name  of  every  male  person  of  the  designated  ages  is  written 
on  these  lists  of  honor. 

In  Witness  Whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed.  Done  at 
the  City  of  Washington  this  18th  day  of  May  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen,  and 
of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  one 
hundred  and  forty-first. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

By  the  President: 

ROBERT  LANSING,  Secretary  of  State. 


PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    OUTLINE    OF   THE    FOOD    ADMINIS 
TRATION  PROGRAM,   MAY   19,   1917 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  In  all  countries  there  had  been 
diminishing  food  supplies  due  to  poor  harvests,  reduced 
man  power,  abnormal  consumption  by  armies,  and  the 
creation  of  vast  reserve  stores  for  the  military.  One  of 
the  chief  ways  in  which  the  United  States  could  help  its 
European  Allies  was  that  of  furnishing  foodstuffs.  Amer 
ican  farmers  had  planted  increased  acreage  and  Congress 
was  framing  legislation  to  prevent  speculation,  hoarding, 
and  waste.] 

It  is  very  desirable,  in  order  to  prevent  misunderstand 
ings  or  alarms  and  to  assure  co-operation  in  a  vital  matter, 
that  the  country  should  understand  exactly  the  scope  and 

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purpose  of  the  very  great  powers  which  I  have  thought  it 
necessary  in  the  circumstances  to  ask  the  Congress  to  put 
in  my  hands  with  regard  to  our  food  supplies.  Those  pow 
ers  are  very  great,  indeed,  but  they  are  no  greater  than  it 
has  proved  necessary  to  lodge  in  the  other  Governments 
which  are  conducting  this  momentous  war,  and  their  object 
is  stimulation  and  conservation,  not  arbitrary  restraint  or 
injurious  interference  with  the  normal  processes  of  pro 
duction.  They  are  intended  to  benefit  and  assist  the 
farmer  and  all  those  who  play  a  legitimate  part  in  the 
preparation,  distribution,  and  marketing  of  foodstuffs. 

It  is  proposed  to  draw  a  sharp  line  of  distinction  between 
the  normal  activities  of  the  Government  represented  in  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  in  reference  to  food  produc 
tion,  conservation,  and  marketing,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
emergency  activities  necessitated  by  the  war  in  reference 
to  the  regulation  of  food  distribution  and  consumption,  on 
the  other.  All  measures  intended  directly  to  extend  the 
normal  activities  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  ref 
erence  to  the  production,  conservation,  and  the  marketing 
of  farm  crops  will  be  administered,  as  in  normal  times, 
through  that  department,  and  the  powers  asked  for  over 
distribution  and  consumption,  over  exports,  imports,  prices, 
purchase,  and  requisition  of  commodities,  storing,  and  the 
like  which  may  require  regulation  during  the  war  will  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  a  Commissioner  of  Food  Administra 
tion,  appointed  by  the  President  and  directly  responsible 
to  him. 

The  objects  sought  to  be  served  by  the  legislation  asked 
for  are:  Full  inquiry  into  the  existing  available  stocks  of 
foodstuffs  and  into  the  costs  and  practices  of  the  various 
food-producing  and  distributing  trades;  the  prevention  of 
all  unwarranted  hoarding  of  every  kind  and  of  the  control 
of  foodstuffs  by  persons  who  are  not  in  any  legitimate  sense 
producers,  dealers,  or  traders ;  the  requisitioning  when  nec- 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

essary  for  the  public  use  of  food  supplies  and  of  the  equip 
ment  necessary  for  handling  them  properly;  the  licensing 
of  wholesome  and  legitimate  mixtures  and  milling  percent 
ages,  and  the  prohibition  of  the  unnecessary  or  wasteful 
use  of  foods. 

Authority  is  asked  also  to  establish  prices,  but  not  in 
order  to  limit  the  profits  of  the  farmers,  but  only  to  guar 
antee  to  them  when  necessary  a  minimum  price  which  will 
insure  them  a  profit  where  they  are  asked  to  attempt  new 
crops  and  to  secure  the  consumer  against  extortion  by  break 
ing  up  corners  and  attempts  at  speculation,  when  they  occur, 
by  fixing  temporarily  a  reasonable  price  at  which  middle 
men  must  sell. 

I  have  asked  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover  to  undertake  this  all- 
importarit  task  of  food  administration.  He  has  expressed 
his  willingness  to  do  so  on  condition  that  he  is  to  receive 
no  payment  for  his  services  and  that  the  whole  of  the  force 
under  him,  exclusive  of  clerical  assistance,  shall  be  em 
ployed,  so  far  as  possible,  upon  the  same  volunteer  basis. 
He  has  expressed  his  confidence  that  this  difficult  matter 
of  food  administration  can  be  successfully  accomplished 
through  the  voluntary  co-operation  and  direction  of  legiti 
mate  distributers  of  foodstuffs  and  with  the  help  of  the 
women  of  the  country. 

Although  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  unquestionable 
powers  shall  be  placed  in  my  hands,  in  order  to  insure  the 
success  of  this  administration  of  the  food  supplies  of  the 
country,  I  am  confident  that  the  exercise  of  those  powers 
will  be  necessary  only  in  the  few  cases  where  some  small 
and  selfish  minority  proves  unwilling  to  put  the  nation's 
interests  above  personal  advantage,  and  that  the  whole 
country  will  heartily  support  Mr.  Hoover's  efforts  by  sup 
plying  the  necessary  volunteer  agencies  throughout  the 
country  for  the  intelligent  control  of  food  consumption  and 
securing  the  co-operation  of  the  most  capable  leaders  of 

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the  very  interests  most  directly  affected,  that  the  exercise 
of  the  powers  deputed  to  him  will  rest  very  successfully 
upon  the  good-will  and  co-operation  of  the  people  them 
selves,  and  that  the  ordinary  economic  machinery  of  the 
country  will  be  left  substantially  undisturbed. 

The  proposed  food  administration  is  intended,  of  course, 
only  to  meet  a  manifest  emergency  and  to  continue  only 
while  the  war  lasts.  Since  it  will  be  composed,  for  the  most 
part,  of  volunteers,  there  need  be  no  fear  of  the  possibility 
of  a  permanent  bureaucracy  arising  out  of  it.  All  control 
of  consumption  will  disappear  when  the  emergency  has 
passed.  It  is  with  that  object  in  view  that  the  Administra 
tion  considers  it  to  be  of  pre-eminent  importance  that  the 
existing  associations  of  producers  and  distributers  of  food 
stuffs  should  be  mobilized  and  made  use  of  on  a  volunteer 
basis.  The  successful  conduct  of  the  projected  food  ad 
ministration  by  such  means  will  be  the  finest  possible  dem 
onstration  of  the  willingness,  the  ability,  and  the  efficiency 
of  democracy,  and  of  its  justified  reliance  upon  the  freedom 
of  individual  initiative.  The  last  thing  that  any  American 
could  contemplate  with  equanimity  would  be  the  introduc 
tion  of  anything  resembling  Prussian  autocracy  into  the 
food  control  in  this  country. 

It  is  of  vital  interest  and  importance  to  every  man  who 
produces  food  and  to  every  man  who  takes  part  in  its  dis 
tribution  that  these  policies  thus  liberally  administered 
should  succeed,  and  succeed  altogether.  It  is  only  in  that 
way  that  we  can  prove  it  to  be  absolutely  unnecessary  to  re 
sort  to  the  rigorous  and  drastic  measures  which  have  proved 
to  be  necessary  in  some  of  the  European  countries. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

EMBARGO  PROCLAMATIONS 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  A  law  approved  June  15,  1917,  had 
empowered  the  President,  at  his  discretion,  to  prohibit  ex 
port  of  various  commodities  except  under  regulations  or 
licenses.  This  was  chiefly  to  keep  supplies  from  reaching 
the  enemy  through  neutral  countries,  and  to  furnish  means 
for  persuading  neutrals  to  release  in  exchange  commodities 
required  by  the  Allies.  The  President  issued  several  Em 
bargo  proclamations,  the  first  being  dated  July  9.  They 
each  contained  a  long  citation  from  the  law  itself  and  still 
longer  lists  of  commodities  and  countries  affected.  Ac 
companying  these  formal  proclamations  were  explanatory 
statements  by  the  President,  which  follow:] 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  9,  1917. 

In  controlling  by  license  the  export  of  certain  indis 
pensable  commodities  from  the  United  States,  the  Govern 
ment  has  first  and  chiefly  in  view  the  amelioration  of  the 
food  conditions  which  have  arisen  or  are  likely  to  arise  in 
our  own  country  before  new  crops  are  harvested.  Not 
only  is  the  conservation  of  our  prime  food  and  fodder  sup 
plies  a  matter  which  vitally  concerns  our  own  people,  but 
the  retention  of  an  adequate  supply  of  raw  materials  is 
essential  to  our  program  of  military  and  naval  construction 
and  the  continuance  of  our  necessary  domestic  activities. 
We  shall  therefore  similarly  safeguard  all  our  fundamental 
supplies. 

It  is  obviously  the  duty  of  the  United  States  in  liberating 
any  surplus  products  over  and  above  our  own  domestic 
needs,  to  consider  first  the  necessities  of  all  the  nations 
engaged  in  war  against  the  Central  Empires.  As  to  neutral 
nations,  however,  we  also  recognize  our  duty.  The  Gov 
ernment  does  not  wish  to  hamper  them.  On  the  contrary, 
it  wishes  and  intends,  by  all  fair  and  equitable  means,  to 
co-operate  with  them  in  their  difficult  task  of  adding  from 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

our  available  surpluses  to  their  own  domestic  supply  and 
of  meeting  their  pressing  necessities  or  deficits.  In  con 
sidering  the  deficits  of  food  supplies  the  Government  means 
only  to  fulfill  its  obvious  obligation  to  assure  itself  that 
neutrals  are  husbanding  their  own  resources  and  that  our 
supplies  will  not  become  available,  either  directly  or  in 
directly,  to  feed  the  enemy. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

[This  first  proclamation  applied  to  all  countries,  but  related 
only  to  fuels,  food  grains,  feed,  fertilizers,  meats  and  fats,  iron 
and  steel,  arms  and  ammunition.  The  second  proclamation  made 
some  additions  to  the  list,  and  also  prohibited  the  export — to  the 
enemy  and  to  European  neutrals — of  practically  all  articles  of 
commerce.  The  explanatory  statement  accompanying  the  second 
proclamation  follows:] 

August  27,  1917. 

The  purpose  and  effect  of  this  proclamation  is  not  ex 
port  prohibition,  but  merely  export  control.  It  is  not  the 
intention  to  interfere  unnecessarily  with  our  foreign  trade; 
but  our  own  domestic  needs  must  be  adequately  safeguarded 
and  there  is  the  added  duty  of  meeting  the  necessities  of 
all  the  nations  at  war  with  the  Imperial  German  Govern 
ment. 

After  these  needs  are  met,  it  is  our  wish  and  intention 
to  minister  to  the  needs  of  the  neutral  nations  as  far  as 
our  resources  permit.  This  task  will  be  discharged  with 
out  other  than  the  very  proper  qualification  that  the  libera 
tion  of  our  surplus  products  shall  not  be  made  the  occasion 
of  benefit  to  the  enemy,  either  directly  or  indirectly. 

The  two  lists  have  been  prepared  in  the  interests  of 
facility  and  expediency.  The  first  list,  applicable  to  the 
enemy  and  his  allies  and  to  the  neutral  countries  of  Europe, 
brings  under  control  practically  all  articles  of  commerce, 
while  the  second  list,  applicable  to  all  the  other  countries 
of  the  world,  makes  only  a  few  additions  to  the  list  of 
commodities  controlled  by  the  proclamation  of  July  9,  1917. 

4Q4 


Woodrow    Wilson 

It  is  obvious  that  a  closer  supervision  and  control  of  ex 
ports  is  necessary  with  respect  to  those  European  neutrals 
within  the  sphere  of  hostilities  than  is  required  for  those 
countries  further  removed. 

The  establishment  of  these  distinctions  will  simplify  the 
administrative  processes  and  enable  us  to  continue  our 
policy  of  minimizing  the  interruption  of  trade. 

No  licenses  will  be  necessary  for  the  exportation  of  coin, 
bullion,  currency  and  evidences  of  indebtedness  until  re 
quired  by  regulations  to  be  promulgated  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  in  his  discretion.  WOODROW  WILSON. 

[By  a  proclamation  of  September  7,  the  free  export  of  coin, 
lion,  and  currency — permitted  in  the  paragraph  above — was  also 
prohibited  except  under  regulations  prescribed  by  the  Treasury.] 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  MESSAGE  TO  RUSSIA 

(Delivered   to   the    Provisional    Government   on    May    26, 
1917;  made  public  at  Washington  on  June   9.) 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  This  was  written  two  months  after 
the  revolution  which  forced  the  abdication  of  Czar  Nicholas 
II  (March  15, 1917 )  and  the  establishment  of  a  provisional 
democratic  government.  Meanwhile,  the  Russian  peasants, 
workmen,  and  soldiers — keen  to  exercise  their  newly  won 
liberty — had  neglected  tasks  associated  with  the  active 
prosecution  of  war;  Germany  and  Austria  had  made  over 
tures  for  a  separate  peace;  and  at  best  Russia  seemed  likely 
to  remain  for  some  time  an  impotent  ally.  President  Wil 
son  sent  a  special  commission  to  Russia,  headed  by  Elihu 
Root,  and  the  following  note  was  made  public  at  about  the 
time  of  the  mission's  arrival  at  Petrograd:] 

In  view  of  the  approaching  visit  of  the  American  delega 
tion  to  Russia  to  express  the  deep  friendship  of  the  Ameri- 


405 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

can  people  for  the  people  of  Russia  and  to  discuss  the  best 
and  most  practical  means  of  co-operation  between  the  two 
peoples  in  carrying  the  present  struggle  for  the  freedom  of 
all  peoples  to  a  successful  consummation,  it  seems  oppor 
tune  and  appropriate  that  I  should  state  again,  in  the  light 
of  this  new  partnership,  the  objects  the  United  States  has 
had  in  mind  in  entering  the  war.  Those  objects  have  been 
very  much  beclouded  during  the  past  few  weeks  by  mis 
taken  and  misleading  statements,  and  the  issues  at  stake 
are  too  momentous,  too  tremendous,  too  significant  for  the 
whole  human  race  to  permit  any  misinterpretations  or  mis 
understandings,  however  slight,  to  remain  uncorrected  for  a 
moment. 

The  war  has  begun  to  go  against  Germany,  and  in  their 
desperate  desire  to  escape  the  inevitable  ultimate  defeat, 
those  who  are  in  authority  in  Germany  are  using  every  pos 
sible  instrumentality,  are  making  use  even  of  the  influence 
of  groups  and  parties  among  their  own  subjects  to  whom 
they  have  never  been  just  or  fair  or  even  tolerant,  to  pro 
mote  a  propaganda  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  which  will  pre 
serve  for  them  their  influence  at  home  and  their  power 
abroad,  to  the  undoing  of  the  very  men  they  are  using. 

The  position  of  America  in  this  war  is  so  clearly  avowed 
that  no  man  can  be  excused  for  mistaking  it.  She  seeks  no 
material  profit  or  aggrandizement  of  any  kind.  She  is  fight 
ing  for  no  advantage  or  selfish  object  of  her  own,  but  for 
the  liberation  of  peoples  everywhere  from  the  aggressions  of 
autocratic  force.  The  ruling  classes  in  Germany  have  be 
gun  of  late  to  profess  a  like  liberality  and  justice  of  pur 
pose,  but  only  to  preserve  the  power  they  have  set  up  in 
Germany  and  the  selfish  advantages  which  they  have 
wrongly  gained  for  themselves  and  their  private  projects 
of  power  all  the  way  from  Berlin  to  Bagdad  and  beyond. 
Government  after  Government  has  by  their  influence,  with 
out  open  conquest  of  its  territory,  been  linked  together  in  a 
net  of  intrigue  directed  against  nothing  less  than  the  peace 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

and  liberty  of  the  world.  The  meshes  of  that  intrigue  must 
be  broken,  but  cannot  be  broken  unless  wrongs  already 
done  are  undone;  and  adequate  measures  must  be  taken  to 
prevent  it  from  ever  again  being  rewoven  or  repaired. 

Of  course,  the  Imperial  Government  and  those  whom  it 
is  using  for  their  own  undoing  are  seeking  to  obtain  pledges 
that  the  war  will  end  in  the  restoration  of  the  status  quo 
ante.  It  was  the  status  quo  ante  out  of  which  this  iniquitous 
war  issued  forth,  the  power  of  the  Imperial  German  Gov 
ernment  within  the  Empire  and  its  widespread  domination 
and  influence  outside  of  that  Empire.  That  status  must  be 
altered  in  such  fashion  as  to  prevent  any  such  hideous  thing 
from  ever  happening  again. 

We  are  fighting  for  the  liberty,  the  self-government,  and 
the  undictated  development  of  all  peoples,  and  every  fea 
ture  of  the  settlement  that  concludes  this  war  must  be 
conceived  and  executed  for  that  purpose.  Wrongs  must 
first  be  righted,  and  then  adequate  safeguards  must  be 
created  to  prevent  their  being  committed  again.  We  ought 
not  to  consider  remedies  merely  because  they  have  a  pleas 
ing  and  sonorous  sound.  Practical  questions  can  be  settled 
only  by  practical  means.  Phrases  will  not  accomplish  the 
result.  Effective  readjustments  will;  and  whatever  read 
justments  are  necessary  must  be  made. 

But  they  must  follow  a  principle,  and  that  principle  is 
plain.  No  people  must  be  forced  under  sovereignty  under 
which  it  does  not  wish  to  live.  No  territory  must  change 
hands  except  for  the  purpose  of  securing  those  who  inhabit 
it  a  fair  chance  of  life  and  liberty.  No  indemnities  must 
be  insisted  on  except  those  that  constitute  payments  for 
manifest  wrongs  done.  No  readjustments  of  power  must 
be  made  except  such  as  will  tend  to  secure  the  future  peace 
of  the  world  and  the  future  welfare  and  happiness  of  its 
peoples. 

And  then  the  free  peoples  of  the  world  must  draw  to 
gether  in  some  common  covenant,  some  genuine  and  prac- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

tical  co-operation  that  will  in  effect  combine  their  force 
to  secure  peace  and  justice  in  the  dealings  of  nations  with 
one  another.  The  brotherhood  of  mankind  must  no  longer 
be  a  fair  but  empty  phrase ;  it  must  be  given  a  structure  of 
force  and  reality.  The  nations  must  realize  their  common 
life  and  effect  a  workable  partnership  to  secure  that  life 
against  the  aggressions  of  autocratic  and  self-pleasing 
power. 

For  these  things  we  can  afford  to  pour  out  blood  and 
treasure.  For  these  are  the  things  we  have  always  pro 
fessed  to  desire,  and  unless  we  pour  out  blood  and  treasure 
now  and  succeed,  we  may  never  be  able  to  unite  or  show 
conquering  force  again  in  the  great  cause  of  human  liberty. 
The  day  has  come  to  conquer  or  submit.  If  the  forces  of 
autocracy  can  divide  us  they  will  overcome  us;  if  we  stand 
together,  victory  is  certain  and  the  liberty  which  victory 
will  secure.  We  can  afford  then  to  be  generous,  but  we 
cannot  afford  then  or  now  to  be  weak  or  omit  any  single 
guarantee  of  justice  and  security. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONFEDERATE  VETERANS 

[At  their  twenty-seventh  annual  gathering,  Washington,  D.  C., 
June  5,  1917— the  first  Confederate  reunion  to  be  held  in  '"the 
North."] 

Mr.  Commander,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  esteem  it  a  very  great  pleasure  and  a  real  privilege  to 
extend  to  the  men  who  are  attending  this  reunion  the  very 
cordial  greetings  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

I  suppose  that  as  you  mix  with  one  another  you  chiefly 
find  these  to  be  days  of  memory,  when  your  thoughts  go 
back  and  recall  those  days  of  struggle  in  which  your  hearts 
were  strained,  in  which  the  whole  nation  seemed  in  grapple, 

408 


Woodrow    Wilson 

and  I  dare  say  that  you  are  thrilled  as  you  remember  the 
heroic  things  that  were  then  done.  You  are  glad  to  remem 
ber  that  heroic  things  were  done  on  both  sides,  and  that 
«ien  in  those  days  fought  in  something  like  the  old  spirit 
of  chivalric  gallantry.  There  are  many  memories  of  the 
Civil  War  that  thrill  along  the  blood  and  make  one  proud 
to  have  been  sprung  of  a  race  that  could  produce  such 
bravery  and  constancy;  and  yet  the  world  does  not  live  on 
memories.  The  world  is  constantly  making  its  toilsome  way 
forward  into  new  and  different  days,  and  I  believe  that 
one  of  the  things  that  contributes  satisfaction  to  a  reunion 
like  this  and  a  welcome  like  this  is  that  this  is  a  day  of 
oblivion.  There  are  some  things  that  we  have  thankfully 
buried  and  among  them  are  the  great  passions  of  divi 
sion  which  once  threatened  to  rend  this  nation  in  twain. 
The  passion  of  admiration  we  still  entertain  for  the  heroic 
figures  of  those  old  days,  but  the  passion  of  separation, 
the  passion  of  difference  of  principle,  is  gone — gone  out 
of  our  minds,  gone  out  of  our  hearts;  and  one  of  the  things 
that  will  thrill  this  country  as  it  reads  of  this  reunion  is 
that  it  will  read  also  of  a  rededication  on  the  part  of  all  of 
us  to  the  great  nation  which  we  serve  in  common. 

These  are  days  of  oblivion  as  well  as  of  memory;  for 
we  are  forgetting  the  things  that  once  held  us  asunder. 
Not  only  that,  but  they  are  days  of  rejoicing,  because  we 
now  at  least  see  why  this  great  nation  was  kept  united, 
for  we  are  beginning  to  see  the  great  world  purposes  which 
it  was  meant  to  serve.  Many  men,  I  know,  particularly  of 
your  own  generation,  have  wondered  at  some  of  the  deal 
ings  of  Providence,  but  the  wise  heart  never  questions  the 
dealings  of  Providence,  because  the  great,  long  plan  as  it 
unfolds  has  a  majesty  about  it  and  a  definiteness  of  purpose, 
an  elevation  of  ideal,  which  we  were  incapable  of  conceiving 
as  we  tried  to  work  things  out  with  our  own  short  sight  and 
weak  strength.  And  now  that  we  see  ourselves  part  of  a 
nation  united,  powerful,  great  in  spirit  and  in  purpose,  we 

409 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

know  the  great  ends  which  God,  in  His  mysterious  provi 
dence,  wrought  through  our  instrumentality,  because  at  the 
heart  of  the  men  of  the  North  and  of  the  South  there  was 
the  same  love  of  self-government  and  of  liberty,  and  now  we 
are  to  be  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  to  see  that  lib 
erty  is  made  secure  for  mankind.  .  .  . 

As  I  came  along  the  streets  a  few  minutes  ago  my  heart 
was  full  of  the  thought  that  this  is  Registration  Day.  Will 
you  not  support  me  in  feeling  that  there  is  some  significance 
in  this  coincidence,  that  this  day,  when  I  come  to  welcome 
you  to  the  national  capital,  is  a  day  when  men  young  as  you 
were  in  those  old  days,  when  you  gathered  together  to  fight, 
are  now  registering  their  names  as  evidence  of  this  great 
idea,  that  in  a  democracy  the  duty  to  serve  and  the  privi 
lege  to  serve  falls  upon  all  alike?  There  is  something  very 
fine,  my  fellow-citizens,  in  the  spirit  of  the  volunteer,  but 
deeper  than  the  volunteer  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  obligation. 
There  is  not  a  man  of  us  who  must  not  hold  himself  ready 
to  be  summoned  to  the  duty  of  supporting  the  great  Gov 
ernment  under  which  we  live.  No  really  thoughtful  and 
patriotic  man  is  jealous  of  that  obligation.  No  man  who 
really  understands  the  privilege  and  the  dignity  of  being 
an  American  citizen  quarrels  for  a  moment  with  the  idea 
that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  the  right  to  call 
upon  whom  it  will  to  serve  the  nation.  These  solemn  lines 
of  young  men  going  to-day  all  over  the  Union  to  places  of 
registration  ought  to  be  a  signal  to  the  world,  to  those  who 
dare  flout  the  dignity  and  honor  and  rights  of  the  United 
States,  that  all  her  manhood  will  flock  to  that  standard 
under  which  we  all  delight  to  serve,  and  that  he  who  chal 
lenges  the  rights  and  principles  of  the  United  States  chal 
lenges  the  united  strength  and  devotion  of  a  nation. 

There  are  not  many  things  that  one  desires  about  war, 
my  fellow-citizens,  but  you  have  come  through  war,  you 
know  how  you  have  been  chastened  by  it,  and  there  comes  a 
time  when  it  is  good  for  a  nation  to  know  that  it  must  sacri- 

410 


Woodrow    Wilson 

• 

fice  if  need  be  everything  that  it  has  to  vindicate  the  prin 
ciples  which  it  professes.  We  have  prospered  with  a  sort 
of  heedless  and  irresponsible  prosperity.  Now  we  are 
going  to  lay  all  our  wealth,  if  necessary,  and  spend  all  our 
blood,  if  need  be,  to  show  that  we  were  not  accumulating 
that  wealth  selfishly,  but  were  accumulating  it  for  the  serv 
ice  of  mankind.  Men  all  over  the  world  have  thought  of 
the  United  States  as  a  trading  and  money-getting  people, 
whereas  we  who  have  lived  at  home  know  the  ideals  with 
which  the  hearts  of  this  people  have  thrilled;  we  know  the 
sober  convictions  which  have  lain  at  the  basis  of  our  life  all 
the  time,  and  we  know  the  power  and  devotion  which  can 
be  spent  in  heroic  ways  for  the  service  of  those  ideals  that 
we  have  treasured.  We  have  been  allowed  to  become  strong 
in  the  Providence  of  God  that  our  strength  might  be  used 
to  prove,  not  our  selfishness,  but  our  greatness,  and  if  there 
is  any  ground  for  thankfulness  in  a  day  like  this,  I  am 
thankful  for  the  privilege  of  self-sacrifice,  which  is  the  only 
privilege  that  lends  dignity  to  the  human  spirit.  .  .  . 


WILSON'S  FLAG  DAY  ADDRESS 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  JUNE  14,  1917. 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  As  a  piece  of  literary  composition  and 
of  lofty  conception^  this  speech  has  been  held  to  take  rank 
with  the  President's  peace  address  to  the  Senate  on  Jan 
uary  22  and  his  war  message  to  Congress  on  April  #.] 

My  Fellow  Citizens: 

We  meet  to  celebrate  Flag  Day  because  this  flag  which 
we  honor  and  under  which  we  serve  is  the  emblem  of  our 
unity,  our  power,  our  thought  and  purpose  as  a  nation.  It 
has  no  other  character  than  that  which  we  give  it  from 
generation  to  generation.  The  choices  are  ours.  It  floats 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

in  majestic  silence  above  the  hosts  that  execute  those 
choices,  whether  in  peace  or  in  war.  And  yet,  though  silent, 
it  speaks  to  us — speaks  to  us  of  the  past,  of  the  men  and 
women  who  went  before  us  and  of  the  records  they  wrote 
upon  it.  We  celebrate  the  day  of  its  birth;  and  from  its 
birth  until  now  it  has  witnessed  a  great  history,  has  floated 
on  high  the  symbol  of  great  events,  of  a  great  plan  of  life 
worked  out  by  a  great  people.  We  are  about  to  carry  it  into 
battle,  to  lift  it  where  it  will  draw  the  fire  of  our  enemies. 
We  are  about  to  bid  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands,  it 
may  be  millions,  of  our  men,  the  young,  the  strong,  the 
capable  men  of  the  nation,  to  go  forth  and  die  beneath  it  on 
fields  of  blood  far  away — for  what?  For  some  unaccus 
tomed  thing  ?  For  something  for  which  it  has  never  sought 
the  fire  before?  American  armies  were  never  before  sent 
across  the  seas.  Why  are  they  sent  now?  For  some  new 
purpose,  for  which  this  great  flag  has  never  been  carried 
before,  or  for  some  old,  familiar,  heroic  purpose  for  which 
it  has  seen  men,  its  own  men,  die  on  every  battlefield  upon 
which  Americans  have  borne  arms  since  the  Revolution? 

These  are  questions  which  must  be  answered.  We  are 
Americans.  We  in  our  turn  serve  America,  and  can  serve 
her  with  no  private  purpose.  We  must  use  her  flag  as 
she  has  always  used  it.  We  are  accountable  at  the  bar  of 
history  and  must  plead  in  utter  frankness  what  purpose  it  is 
we  seek  to  serve. 

It  is  plain  enough  how  we  were  forced  into  the  war.  The 
extraordinary  insults  and  aggressions  of  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  left  us  no  self-respecting  choice  but  to 
take  up  arms  in  defense  of  our  rights  as  a  free  people  and 
of  our  honor  as  a  sovereign  government.  The  military  mas 
ters  of  Germany  denied  us  the  right  to  be  neutral.  They 
filled  our  unsuspecting  communities  with  vicious  spies  am 
conspirators  and  sought  £ 6  corrupt  the  opinion  of  ourj3eopl& 
iijLtheir 'own  beKalf.  _When  they  found  ~tEat  they  could  not 
do  that,  their  agents  diligently  spread  sedition  amongst  us 


Woodrow    Wilson 

and  sought  to  draw  our  own  citizens  from  their  allegianc( 
ancTlsome  of  those  agents  were  men  connected  with  the 
6fficlal~Embassy  of  the  German  Government  itself  here  in 
our  own  cafiital^  Tiie^i^aou^ht  by  violence  to  destroy  our 
industries  and  arrest  our  commerce.  They  tried  to  incite 
Mexico  to  take  up  arms  against  us  and  to  draw  Japan  into 
a  hostile  alliance  with  her — and  that,  not  by  indirection, 
but  by  direct  suggestion  from  the  Foreign  Office  in  Berlin. 
They  impudently  denied  us  the  use  of  the  high  seas  and  re 
peatedly  executed  their  threat  that  they  would  send  to  their 
death  any  of  our  people '  who  ventured  to  approach  the 
coasts  of  Europe.  And  many  of  our  own  people  were  cor 
rupted.  Men  began  to  look  upon  their  own  neighbors  with 
suspicion  and  to  wonder  in  their  hot  resentment  and  sur 
prise  whether  there  was  any  community  In  which  hostile 
intrigue  did  not  lurk.  What  great  nation  in  such  circum 
stances  would  not  have  taken  up  arms?  Much  as  we  had 
desired  peace,  it  was  denied  us,  and  not  of  our  own  choice. 
This  flag  under  which  we  serve  would  have  been  dishonored 
had  we  withheld  our  hand. 

But  that  is  only  part  of  the  story.  We  know  now  as 
clearly  as  we  knew  before  we  were  ourselves  engaged  that 
we  are  not  the  enemies  of  the  German  people  and  that  they 
are  not  our  enemies.  They  did  not  originate  or  desire  this 
hideous  war  or  wish  that  we  should  be  drawn  into  it;  and 
we  are  vaguely  conscious  that  we  are  fighting  their  cause, 
as  they  will  some  day  see  it,  as  well  as  our  own.  They  are 
themselves  in  the  grip  of  the  same  sinister  power  that  has 
now  at  last  stretched  its  ugly  talons  out  and  drawn  blood 
from  us.  The  whole  world  is  at  war  because  the  whole 
world  is  in  the  grip 'of  that  power  and  is  trying  out  the 
great  battle  which  shall  determine  whether  it  is  to  be 
brought  under  its  mastery  or  fling  itself  free. 

The  war  was  begun  by  the  military  masters  of  Germany, 
who  proved  to  be  also  the  masters  of  Austria  Hungary. 
These  men  have  never  regarded  nations  as  peoples,  men, 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

women,  and  children  of  like  blood  and  frame  as  themselves, 
for  whom  governments  existed  and  in  whom  governments 
had  their  life.  They  have  regarded  them  merely  as  serv 
iceable  organizations  which  they  could  by  force  or  intrigue 
bend  or  corrupt  to  their  own  purpose.  They  have  regarded 
the  smaller  states,  in  particular,  and  the  peoples  who  could 
be  overwhelmed  by  force,  as  their  natural  tools  and  instru 
ments  of  domination.  Their  purpose  has  long  been  avowed. 
The  statesmen  of  other  nations,  to  whom  that  purpose  was 
incredible,  paid  little  attention ;  regarded  what  German  pro 
fessors  expounded  in  their  classrooms  and  German  writers 
set  forth  to  the  world  j.s  the  goal  of  German  policy  as 
rather  the  dream  of  minds  detached  from  practical  affairs, 
as  prepci;Lurous  private  conceptions  of  German  destiny, 
than  as  the  actual  plans  of  responsible  rulers ;  but  the  rulers 
of  Germany  themselves  knew  all  the  while  what  concrete 
plans,  what  well  advanced  intrigues  lay  back  of  what  the 
professors  and  the  writers  v/ere  saying,  and  were  glad  to 
go  forward  unmolested,  filling  the  thrones  of  Balkan  states 
with  German  princes,  putting  German  officers  at  the  service 
of  Turkey  to  drill  her  armies  anc1  make  interest  with  her 
government,  developing  plans  of  sedition  and  rebellion  in 
India  and  Egypt,  setting  their  fires  in  Persia.  The  de 
mands  made  by  Austria  upon  Servia  were  a  mere  single  step 
in  a  plan  which  compassed  Europe  and  Asia,  from  Berlin 
to  Bagdad.  They  hoped  those  demands  might  not  arouse 
Europe,  but  they  meant  to  press  them  whether  they  did  or 
not,  for  they  thought  themselves  ready  for  the  final  issue 
of  arms. 

Their  plan  was  to  throw  a  broad  belt  of  German  military 
power  and  political  control  across  the  very  center  of 
Europe  and  beyond  the  Mediterranean  into  the  heart  of 
Asia ;  and  Austria-Hungary  was  to  be  as  much  their  tool  and 
pawn  as  Servia  or  Bulgaria  or  Turkey  or  the  ponderous 
states  of  the  East.  Austria-Hungary,  indeed,  was  to  be 
come  part  of  the  central  German  Empire,  absorbed  and 

41.4 


Woodrow    Wilson 

dominated  by  the  same  forces  and  influences  that  had  orig 
inally  cemented  the  German  states  themselves.  The  dream 
had  its  heart  at  Berlin.  It  could  have  had  a  heart  no 
where  else!  It  rejected  the  idea  of  solidarity  of  race  en 
tirely.  The  choice  of  peoples  played  no  part  in  it  at  all. 
It  contemplated  binding  together  racial  and  political  units 
which  could  be  kept  together  only  by  force — Czechs,  Mag 
yars,  Croats,  Serbs,  Roumanians,  Turks,  Armenians — the 
proud  states  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary,  the  stout  little  com 
monwealths  of  the  Balkans,  the  indomitable  Turks,  the 
subtle  peoples  of  the  East.  These  peoples  did  not  wish  to 
be  united.  They  ardently  desired  to  direct  their  own  affairs, 
would  be  satisfied  only  by  undisputed  independence.  They 
could  be  kept  quiet  only  by  the  presence  or  the  constant 
threat  of  armed  men.  They  would  live  under  a  common 
power  only  by  sheer  compulsion  and  await  the  day  of  revo 
lution.  But  the  German  military  statesmen  had  reckoned 
with  all  that  and  were  ready  to  deal  with  it  in  their  own 
way. 

And  they  have  actually  carried  the  greater  part  of  that 
amazing  plan  into  execution!  Look  how  things  stand. 
Austria  is  at  their  mercy.  It  has  acted,  not  upon  its  own 
initiative  or  upon  the  choice  of  its  own  people,  but  at  Ber 
lin's  dictation  ever  since  the  war  began.  Its  people  now 
desire  peace,  but  cannot  have  it  until  leave  is  granted  from 
Berlin.  The  so-called  Central  Powers  are  in  fact  but  a 
single  Power.  Servia  is  at  its  mercy,  should  its  hands  be 
but  for  a  moment  freed.  Bulgaria  has  consented  to  its  will, 
and  Roumania  is  overrun.  The  Turkish  armies,  which 
Germans  trained^  are  serving  Germany,  certainly  not  them 
selves,  and  the  guns  of  German  warships  lying  in  the  har 
bor  at  Constantinople  remind  Turkish  statesmen  every  day 
that  they  have  no  choice  but  to  take  their  orders  from  Ber 
lin.  From  Hamburg  to  the  Persian  Gulf  the  net  is  spread. 

Is  it  not  easy  to  understand  the  eagerness  for  peace  that 
has  been  manifested  from  Berlin  ever  since  the  snare  was 

41$ 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

set  and  sprung?  Peace,  peace,  peace  has  been  the  talk  of 
her  Foreign  Office  for  now  a  year  and  more ;  not  peace  upon 
her  own  initiative,  but  upon  the  initiative  of  the  nations 
over  which  she  now  deems  herself  to  hold  the  advantage. 
A  little  of  the  talk  has  been  public,  but  most  of  it  has  been 
private.  Through  all  sorts  of  channels  it  has  come  to  me, 
and  in  all  sorts  of  guises,  but  never  with  the  terms  disclosed 
which  the  German  Government  would  be  willing  to  accept. 
That  government  has  other  valuable  pawns  in  its  hands 
besides  those  I  have  mentioned.  It  still  holds  a  valuable 
part  of  France,  though  with  slowly  relaxing  grasp,  and 
practically  the  whole  of  Belgium.  Its  armies  press  close 
upon  Russia  and  overrun  Poland  at  their  will.  It  cannot  go 
further ;  it  dare  not  go  back.  It  wishes  to  close  its  bargain 
before  it  is  too  late  and  it  has  little  left  to  offer  for  the 
pound  of  flesh  it  will  demand. 

The  military  masters  under  whom  Germany  is  bleeding 
see  very  clearly  to  what  point  Fate  has  brought  them.  If 
they  fall  back  or  are  forced  back  an  inch,  their  power  both 
abroad  and  at  home  will  fall  to  pieces  like  a  house  of  cards. 
It  is  their  power  at  home  they  are  thinking  about  now  more 
than  their  power  abroad.  It  is  that  power  which  is  trem 
bling  under  their  very  feet ;  and  deep  fear  has  entered  their 
hearts.  They  have  but  one  chance  to  perpetuate  their  mili 
tary  power  or  even  their  controlling  political  influence.  If 
they  can  secure  peace  now  with  the  immense  advantages 
still  in  their  hands  which  they  have  up  to  this  point  appar 
ently  gained,  they  will  have  justified  themselves  before  the 
German  people;  they  will  have  gained  by  force  what  they 
promised  to  gain  by  it:  an  immense  expansion  of  German 
power,  an  immense  enlargement  of  German  industrial  and 
commercial  opportunities.  Their  prestige  will  be  secure, 
and  with  their  prestige  their  political  power.  If  they  fail, 
their  people  will  thrust  them  aside;  a  government  account 
able  to  the  people  themselves  will  be  set  up  in  Germany  as 
it  has  been  in  England,  in  the  United  States,  in  France,  and 

416 


Woodrow    Wilson 

in  all  the  great  countries  of  the  modern  time  except  Ger 
many.  If  they  succeed  they  are  safe  and  Germany  and  the 
world  are  undone;  if  they  fail  Germany  is  saved  and  the 
world  will  be  at  peace.  If  they  succeed,  America  will  fall 
within  the  menace.  We  and  all  the  rest  of  the  world  must 
remain  armed,  as  they  will  remain,  and  must  make  ready  for 
the  next  step  in  their  aggression;  if  they  fail,  the  world 
may  unite  for  peace  and  Germany  may  be  of  the  union. 

jDo_you  notnow  understand  the  new  IntrigueA-thg  intrigue 
for  peace,  an^wj^^hejmasters  of  Germany  do  not  hesitate 
to  use  any  agency  that  promises  to  effecLthp.ir  p^rpose^  tjie 
deceit  of  the  nations?  Their  present  particular  aim  is  to 
deceive  all  those  who  throughout  the  world  stand  for  the 
rights  of  peoples  and  the  self-government  of  nations;  for 
they  see  what  immense  strength  the  forces  of  justice  and 
of  liberalism  are  gathering  out  of  this  war.  They  are  em 
ploying  liberals  in  their  enterprise.  Tkey  are  using  men,  in 
Qermany  and  without,  as  their  spokesmen  who^_thej_have^ 
hitherto  despised  an^j^pprjEssed^jising  them  for  their  own 
destruction — socialists,  the  leaders  of  labor,  the  thinkers 
they  have  hitherto,  sought  to  silence.  Let  them  once  suc 
ceed  and  these  men,  now  their  tools,  will  be  ground  to  pow 
der  beneath  the  weight  of  the  great  military  empire  they 
will  have  set  up ;  the  revolutionists  in  Russia  will  be  cut  off 
from  all  succor  or  co-operation  in  western  Europe  and  a 
counter  revolution  fostered  and  supported ;  Germany  herself 
will  lose  her  chance  of  freedom;  and  all  Europe  will  arm 
for  the  next,  the  final  struggle. 

The  sinister  intrigue  is  being  no  less  actively  conducted 
in  this  country  than  in  Russia  and  in  every  country  in 
Europe  to  which  the  agents  and  dupes  of  the  Imperial  Ger 
man  Government  can  get  access.  That  government  has 
many  spokesmen  here,  in  places  high  and  low.  They  hav< 
learned  discreTion.  They  keep  wjfHm^heJaw.  It  is  opinion 
thejjL.  utter  nqjK^jiot  ^edition.  They  proclaim  the  liberal 
purposes  of  their  masters ;  declare  this  a  foreign  war  which 

417 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

can  touch  America  with  no  danger  to  either  her  lands  or 
her  institutions ;  set  England  at  the  centre  of  the  stage  and 
talk  of  her  ambition  to  assert  economic  dominion  throughout 
the  world ;  appeal  to  our  ancient  tradition  of  isolation  in  the 
politics  of  the  nations;  and  seek  to  undermine  the  govern 
ment  with  false  professions  of  loyalty  to  its  principles. 

But  they  will  make  no  headway.  The  false  betray  them 
selves  always  in  every  accent.  It  is  only  friends  and  parti 
sans  of  the  German  Government  whom  we  have  already 
identified  who  utter  these  thinly  disguised  loyalties.  The 
facts  are  patent  to  all  the  world,  and  nowhere  are  they 
more  plainly  seen  than  in  the  United  States,  where  we  are 
accustomed  to  deal  with  facts  and  not  with  sophistries ;  and 
the  great  fact  that  stands  out  above  all  the  rest  is  that  this 
is  a  People's  War,  a  war  for  freedom  and  justice  and  self- 
government  amongst  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  a  war  to 
make  the  world  safe  for  the  peoples  who  live  upon  it  and 
have  made  it  their  own,  the  German  peoples  themselves  in 
cluded;  and  that  with  us  rests  the  choice  to  break  through 
all  these  hypocrisies  and  patent  cheats  and  masks  of 
brute  force  and  help  set  the  world  free,  or  else  stand  aside 
and  let  it  be  dominated  a  long  age  through  by  sheer  weight 
of  arms  and  the  arbitrary  choices  of  self-constituted  mas 
ters,  by  the  nation  which  can  maintain  the  biggest  armies 
and  the  most  irresistible  armaments — a  power  to  which  the 
world  has  afforded  no  parallel  and  in  the  face  of  which 
political  freedom  must  wither  and  perish. 

For  us  there  is  but  one  choice.  We  have  made  it.  Woe 
be  to  the  man  or  group  of  men  that  seeks  to  stand  in  our 
way  in  this  day  of  high  resolution  when  every  principle  we 
hold  dearest  is  to  be  vindicated  and  made  secure  for  the 
salvation  of  the  nations.  We  are  ready  to  plead  at  the  bar 
of  history,  and  our  flag  shall  wear  a  new  lustre.  Once  more 
we  shall  make  good  with  our  lives  and  fortunes  the  great 
faith  to  which  we  were  born,  and  a  new  glory  shall 
shine  in  the  face  of  our  people. 

418 


Woodrow    Wilson 

PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  GREETING  TO  FRANCE, 
ON  BASTILE  DAY,  JULY  14,  1917 

On  this  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  democracy  in  France, 
I  offer  on  behalf  of  my  countrymen  and  on  my  own  behalf, 
fraternal  greetings  as  befit  the  strong  ties  that  unite  our 
peoples,  who  to-day  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  defense 
of  liberty  in  testimony  of  the  steadfast  purpose  of  our 
two  countries  to  achieve  victory  for  the  sublime  cause  of 
the  rights  of  the  people  against  oppression.  The  lesson 
of  the  Bastile  is  not  lost  to  the  world  of  free  peoples. 
May  the  day  be  near  when  on  the  ruins  of  the  dark  strong 
hold  of  unbridled  power  and  conscienceless  autocracy,  the 
nobler  structure,  upbuilt,  like  your  own  great  republic,  on 
the  eternal  foundation  of  peace  and  right,  shall  arise  to 
gladden  an  enfranchised  world. 


PRESIDENT   WILSON'S  WELCOME   TO   THE   SPECIAL 

AMBASSADOR  FROM  JAPAN,  VISCOUNT  ISHII, 

AUGUST   23,    1917 

Mr.  Ambassador: 

It  is  with  a  sense  of  deep  satisfaction  that  I  receive  from 
your  hand  the  letters  whereby  you  are  accredited  as  the 
Ambassador  Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  of  Japan 
on  special  mission  to  the  United  States.  It  is  a  pleasure 
to  accept  through  you  from  your  imperial  sovereign  con 
gratulations  on  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
great  conflict  which  is  now  raging. 

The  present  struggle  is  especially  characterized  by  the 
development  of  the  spirit  of  co-operation  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  the  world  for  the  maintenance  of  the  rights 
of  nations  and  the  liberties  of  individuals.  I  assure  your 
Excellency  that,  standing,  as  our  countries  now  do,  asso 
ciated  in  this  great  struggle  for  the  vindication  of  justice, 

419 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

there  will  be  developed  those  closer  ties  of  fellowship  which 
must  come  from  the  mutual  sacrifice  of  life  and  property. 
May  the  efforts  now  being  exerted  by  an  indigant  humanity 
lead,  at  the  proper  time,  to  the  complete  establishment  of 
justice  and  to  a  peace  which  will  be  both  permanent  and 
serene. 

I  trust  your  Excellency  will  find  your  sojourn  among  us 
most  agreeable  and  I  should  be  gratified  if  you  would  be 
so  good  as  to  make  known  to  his  Imperial  Majesty  my  best 
wishes  for  his  welfare,  for  that  of  your  wonderful  country, 
and  for  the  happiness  of  its  people. 

I  am  most  happy  to  accord  you  recognition  in  your  high 
capacity. 


WILSON'S   MESSAGE  TO   THE   RUSSIAN   NATIONAL   COUNCIL 
AUGUST  27,  1917 

[The  path  of  the  new  republic  had  continued  to  be  difficult,  and 
at  times  it  seemed  impossible  to  harmonize  the  desires  of  the 
various  elements.  Workmen,  soldiers,  and  peasants  formed  their 
respective  councils;  and  these  and  other  bodies  met  at  Moscow 
to  establish  fundamental  principles.] 

President  of  the  National  Council  Assembly,  Moscow: 

I  take  the  liberty  to  send  to  the  members  of  the  great 
council  now  meeting  in  Moscow  the  cordial  greetings  of 
their  friends,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  to  express 
their  confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  ideals  of  democ 
racy  and  self-government  against  all  enemies  within  and 
without,  and  to  give  their  renewed  assurance  of  every  ma 
terial  and  moral  assistance  they  can  extend  to  the  Govern 
ment  of  Russia  in  the  promotion  of  the  common  cause  in 
which  the  two  nations  are  unselfishly  united. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

PRESIDENT   WILSON'S    REPLY   TO   THE    POPE'S   PEACE 
PROPOSALS 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  At  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  year 
of  war,  Pope  Benedict  had  addressed  an  appeal  to  the 
belligerents.  His  suggestions  for  the  basis  of  a  just  and 
durable  peace  included  disarmament,  the  evacuation  of 
Belgian  and  French  territory,  the  restitution  of  German 
colonies,  and  the  settlement  of  political  and  territorial  ques 
tions — Alsace-Lorraine,  Poland,  etc. — in  a  conciliatory 
spirit  for  the  general  welfare.  This  appeal  from  the  Pope 
reached  Washington  on  August  15.] 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  AUG.  27,  1917. 
To  His  Holiness  Benedictus  XV.,  Pope: 

In  acknowledgment  of  the  communication  of  your  Holi 
ness  to  the  belligerent  peoples,  dated  Aug.  1,  1917,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  requests  me  to  transmit  the 
following  reply: 

Every  heart  that  has  not  been  blinded  and  hardened  by 
this  terrible  war  must  be  touched  by  this  moving  appeal 
of  his  Holiness  the  Pope,  must  feel  the  dignity  and  force 
of  the  humane  and  generous  motives  which  prompted  it, 
and  must  fervently  wish  that  we  might  take  the  path  of 
peace  he  so  persuasively  points  out.  But  it  would  be  folly 
to  take  it  if  it  does  not  in  fact  lead  to  the  goal  he  proposes. 
Our  response  must  be  based  upon  the  stern  facts,  and  upon 
nothing  else.  It  is  not  a  mere  cessation  of  arms  he  desires ; 
it  is  a  stable  and  enduring  peace.  This  agony  must  not  be 
gone  through  with  again,  and  it  must  be  a  matter  of  very 
sober  judgment  what  will  insure  us  against  it. 

His  Holiness  in  substance  proposes  that  we  return  to  the 
status  quo  ante-bellum  and  that  then  there  be  a  general 
condonation,  disarmament,  and  a  concert  of  nations  based 
upon  an  acceptance  of  the  principle  of  arbitration;  that  by 
a  similar  concert  freedom  of  the  seas  be  established;  arid 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

that  the  territorial  claims  of  France  and  Italy,  the  perplex 
ing  problems  of  the  Balkan  States,  and  the  restitution  of 
Poland  be  left  to  such  conciliatory  adjustments  as  may  be 
possible  in  the  new  temper  of  such  a  peace,  due  regard 
being  paid  to  the  aspirations  of  the  peoples  whose  political 
fortunes  and  affiliations  will  be  involved. 

It  is  manifest  that  no  part  of  this  program  can  be  suc 
cessfully  carried  out  unless  the  restitution  of  the  status 
quo  ante  furnishes  a  firm  and  satisfactory  basis  for  it. 
The  object  of  this  war  is  to  deliver  the  free  peoples  of 
the  world  from  the  menace  and  the  actual  power  of  a  vast 
military  establishment,  controlled  by  an  irresponsible  Gov 
ernment,  which,  having  secretly  planned  to  dominate  the 
world,  proceeded  to  carry  the  plan  out  without  regard 
either  to  the  sacred  obligations  of  treaty  or  the  long-estab 
lished  practices  and  long-cherished  principles  of  interna 
tional  action  and  honor;  which  chose  its  own  time  for  the 
war;  delivered  its  blow  fiercely  and  suddenly;  stopped  at 
no  barrier,  either  of  law  or  of  mercy;  swept  a  whole  con 
tinent  within  the  tide  of  blood — not  the  blood  of  soldiers 
only,  but  the  blood  of  innocent  women  and  children  also 
and  of  the  helpless  poor;  and  now  stands  balked,  but  not 
defeated,  the  enemy  of  four-fifths  of  the  world. 

This  power  is  not  the  German  people.  It  is  the  ruthless 
master  of  the  German  people.  It  is  no  business  of  ours 
how  that  great  people  came  under  its  control  or  submitted 
with  temporary  zest  to  the  domination  of  its  purpose;  but 
it  is  our  business  to  see  to  it  that  the  history  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  is  no  longer  left  to  its  handling. 

To  deal  with  such  a  power  by  way  of  peace  upon  the 
plan  proposed  by  his  Holiness  the  Pope  would,  so  far  as 
we  can  see,  involve  a  recuperation  of  its  strength  and  a 
renewal  of  its  policy;  would  make  it  necessary  to  create  a 
permanent  hostile  combination  of  nations  against  the  Ger 
man  people,  who  are  its  instruments;  and  would  result  in 


Woodrow    Wilson 

abandoning  the  new-born  Russia  to  the  intrigue,  the  mani 
fold  subtle  interference,  and  the  certain  counter-revolution 
which  would  be  attempted  by  all  the  malign  influences  to 
which  the  German  Government  has  of  late  accustomed  the 
world. 

Can  peace  be  based  upon  a  restitution  of  its  power  or 
upon  any  word  of  honor  it  could  pledge  in  a  treaty  of  settle 
ment  and  accommodation? 

Responsible  statesmen  must  now  everywhere  see,  if  they 
never  saw  before,  that  no  peace  can  rest  securely  upon 
political  or  economic  restrictions  meant  to  benefit  some  na 
tions  and  cripple  or  embarrass  others,  upon  vindictive 
action  of  any  sort,  or  any  kind  of  revenge  or  deliberate 
injury.  The  American  people  have  suffered  intolerable 
wrongs  at  the  hands  of  the  Imperial  German  Government, 
but  they  desire  no  reprisal  upon  the  German  people,  who 
have  themselves  suffered  all  things  in  this  war,  which  they 
did  not  choose.  They  believe  that  peace  should  rest  upon 
the  rights  of  peoples,  not  the  rights  of  Governments — the 
rights  of  peoples,  great  or  small,  weak  or  powerful — their 
equal  right  to  freedom  and  security  and  self-government 
and  to  a  participation  upon  fair  terms  in  the  economic  op 
portunities  of  the  world,  the  German  people,  of  course,  in 
cluded,  if  they  will  accept* equality  and  not  seek  domination. 

The  test,  therefore,  of  every  plan  of  peace  is  this:  Is  it 
based  upon  the  faith  of  all  the  peoples  involved,  or  merely 
upon  the  word  of  an  ambitious  and  intriguing  Government, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  a  group  of  free  peoples,  on  the 
other  ?  This  is  a  test  which  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter ; 
and  it  is  the  test  which  must  be  applied. 

The  purposes  of  the  United  States  in  this  war  are  known 
to  the  whole  world — to  every  people  to  whom  the  truth  has 
been  permitted  to  come.  They  do  not  need  to  be  stated 
again.  We  seek  no  material  advantage  of  any  kind.  We 
believe  that  the  intolerable  wrongs  done  in  this  war  by  the 
furious  and  brutal  power  of  the  Imperial  German  Govern- 

423 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papert 

ment  ought  to  be  repaired,  but  not  at  the  expense  of  the 
sovereignty  of  any  people — rather  a  vindication  of  the  sov 
ereignty  both  of  those  that  are  weak  and  of  those  that 
are  strong.  Punitive  damages,  the  dismemberment  of  em 
pires,  the  establishment  of  selfish  and  exclusive  economic 
leagues,  we  deem  inexpedient,  and  in  the  end  worse  than 
futile,  no  proper  basis  for  a  peace  of  any  kind,  least  of  all 
for  an  enduring  peace.  That  must  be  based  upon  justice 
and  fairness  and  the  common  rights  of  mankind. 

We  cannot  take  the  word  of  the  present  rulers  of  Ger 
many  as  a  guarantee  of  anything  that  is  to  endure  unless 
explicitly  supported  by  such  conclusive  evidence  of  the  will 
and  purpose  of  the  German  people  themselves  as  the  other 
peoples  of  the  world  would  be  justified  in  accepting.  With 
out  such  guarantees  treaties  of  settlement,  agreements  for 
disarmament,  covenants  to  set  up  arbitration  in  the  place  of 
force,  territorial  adjustments,  reconstitutions  of  small  na 
tions,  if  made  with  the  German  Government,  no  man,  no 
nation,  could  now  depend  on. 

We  must  await  some  new  evidence  of  the  purposes  of  the 
great  peoples  of  the  Central  Powers.  God  grant  it  may  be 
given  soon  and  in  a  way  to  restore  the  confidence  of  all 
peoples  everywhere  in  the  faith  of  nations  and  the  possi 
bility  of  a  covenanted  peace. 

ROBERT  LANSING, 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  of  America. 


ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE   PRICE   TO   BE  PAID  FOR  WHEAT 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  Food  Administration  bill  had 
become  a  law  on  August  10,  1917,  and  the  President  had 
appointed  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover  as  Food  Administrator. 
The  first  important  act  of  this  body — through  a  committee 
of  prominent  citizens  headed  by  President  Harry  A.  Gar- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

field,  of  WiUiams  College — was  to  establish  a  price  which 
the  Government  would  pay  for  wheat  for  itself  and  its 
Allies.  The  Government  being  the  largest  purchaser,  this 
would  tend  to  set  the  standard  price.  Similar  committees 
were  to  fix  prices  for  other  necessities.  The  President  an 
nounced  the  recommendation  of  the  wheat  committee :] 

Washington,  August  80,  1917. 

Section  11  of  the  food  act  provides,  among  other  things, 
for  the  purchase  and  sale  of  wheat  and  flour  by  the  Govern 
ment,  and  appropriates  money  for  the  purpose.  The  pur 
chase  of  wheat  and  flour  for  our  allies,  and  to  a  considerable 
degree  for  neutral  countries  also,  has  been  placed  under  the 
control  of  the  Food  Administration.  I  have  appointed  a 
committee  to  determine  a  fair  price  to  be  paid  in  Govern 
ment  purchases.  The  price  now  recommended  by  that  com 
mittee — $2.20  per  bushel  at  Chicago  for  the  basic  grade — 
will  be  rigidly  adhered  to  by  the  Food  Administration. 

It  is  the  hope  and  expectation  of  the  Food  Administration, 
and  my  own  also,  that  this  step  will  at  once  stabilize  and 
keep  within  moderate  bounds  the  price  of  wheat  for  all 
transactions  throughout  the  present  crop  year,  and  in  con 
sequence  the  prices  of  flour  and  bread  also.  The  food  act 
has  given  large  powers  for  the  control  of  storage  and 
exchange  operations,  and  these  powers  will  be  fully  exer 
cised.  An  inevitable  consequence  will  be  that  financial 
dealings  can  not  follow  their  usual  course.  Whatever  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  ordinary  machinery 
of  trade,  it  can  not  function  well  under  such  disturbed  and 
abnormal  conditions  as  now  exist.  In  its  place  the  Food 
Administration  now  fixes  for  its  purchases  a  fair  price,  as 
recommended  unanimously  by  a  committee  representative 
of  all  interests  and  all  sections,  and  believes  that  thereby 
it  will  eliminate  speculation,  make  possible  the  conduct  of 
every  operation  in  the  full  light  of  day,  maintain  the  pub 
licly  stated  price  for  all,  and,  through  economies  made 

425 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

possible  by  stabilization  and  control,  better  the  position 
of  consumers  also. 

Mr.  Hoover,  at  his  express  wish,  has  taken  no  part  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  committee  on  whose  recommendation 
I  determine  the  Government's  fair  price,  nor  has  he  in  any 
way  intimated  an  opinion  regarding  that  price. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S   MESSAGE  TO  THE  NATIONAL  ARMY 

[On  September  5,  the  687,000  young  men  in  the  National  Army — 
chosen  by  lot  from  among  the  ten  million  registered  on  June  5 — 
were  to  begin  to  move  toward  their  training  camps.] 

Washington,  D.  C.,  Sept.  3,  1917. 
To  the  Soldiers  of  the  National  Army: 

You  are  undertaking  a  great  duty.  The  heart  of  the 
whole  country  is  with  you. 

Everything  that  you  do  will  be  watched  with  the  deepest 
interest  and  with  the  deepest  solicitude,  not  only  by  those 
who  are  near  and  dear  to  you,  but  by  the  whole  nation 
besides.  For  this  great  war  draws  us  all  together,  makes 
us  all  comrades  and  brothers,  as  all  true  Americans  felt 
themselves  to  be  when  we  first  made  good  our  national 
independence. 

The  eyes  of  all  the  world  will  be  upon  you,  because  you 
are  in  some  special  sense  the  soldiers  of  freedom.  Let  it  be 
your  pride,  therefore,  to  show  all  men  everywhere  not  only 
what  good  soldiers  you  are,  but  also  what  good  men  you 
are,  keeping  yourselves  fit  and  straight  in  everything  and 
pure  and  clean  through  and  through. 

Let  us  set  for  ourselves  a  standard  so  high  that  it  will 
be  a  glory  to  live  up  to  it,  and  then  let  us  live  up  to  it  and 
add  a  new  laurel  to  the  crown  of  America. 

My  affectionate  confidence  goes  with  you  in  every  battle 
and  every  test.  God  keep  and  guide  you! 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

APPEAL  TO  SCHOOL  CHILDREN  TO  SERVE  THE  COUNTRY  IN 
RED  CROSS  ACTIVITIES,  SEPTEMBER  15,  1917 

To  the  School  Children  of  the  United  States: 

A    PROCLAMATION 

The  President  of  the  United  States  is  also  President  of 
the  American  Red  Cross.  It  is  from  these  offices  joined 
in  one  that  I  write  you  a  word  of  greeting  at  this  time, 
when  so  many  of  you  are  beginning  the  school  year. 

The  American  Red  Cross  has  just  prepared  a  Junior 
Membership  with  School  Activities,  in  which  every  pupil 
in  the  United  States  can  find  a  chance  to  serve  our  country. 
The  school  is  the  natural  centre  of  your  life.  Through  it 
you  can  best  work  in  the  great  cause  of  freedom  to  which 
we  have  all  pledged  ourselves. 

Our  Junior  Red  Cross  will  bring  to  you  opportunities  of 
service  to  your  community  and  to  other  communities  all  over 
the  world  and  guide  your  service  with  high  and  religious 
ideals.  It  will  teach  you  how  to  save  in  order  that  suf 
fering  children  elsewhere  may  have  the  chance  to  live.  It 
will  teach  you  how  to  prepare  some  of  the  supplies  which 
wounded  soldiers  and  homeless  families  lack.  It  will  send 
to  you  through  the  Red  Cross  Bulletins  the  thrilling  stories 
of  relief  and  rescue.  And,  best  of  all,  more  perfectly  than 
through  any  of  your  other  school  lessons,  you  will  learn 
by  doing  those  kind  things  under  your  teacher's  direction 
to  be  the  future  good  citizens  of  this  great  country  which 
we  all  love. 

And  I  commend  to  all  school  teachers  in  the  country  the 
simple  plan  which  the  American  Red  Cross  has  worked  out 
to  provide  for  your  cooperation,  knowing  as  I  do  that 
school  children  will  give  their  best  service  under  the  direct 
guidance  and  instruction  of  their  teachers.  Is  not  this 
perhaps  the  chance  for  which  you  have  been  looking  to 
give  your  time  and  efforts  in  some  measure  to  meet  our 
national  needs?  WOODROW  WILSON. 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

APPOINTMENT  OF  COMMISSION  TO  ADJUST  LABOR  DISPUTES^ 
SEPTEMBER  19,  1917 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  Strikes  at  large  copper  mines  in  Mon 
tana  and  Arizona  had  continued  through  several  months, 
endangering  the  supply  for  munitions;  and  a  more  recent 
strike  of  iron  and  steel  workers  on  the  Pacific  Coast  was 
halting  the  great  shipbuilding  program  of  the  Administra 
tion.  These  strikes  involved  wage  adjustments  chiefly.] 

(A  Memorandum  for  the  Secretary  of  Labor) 

I  am  very  much  interested  in  the  labor  situation  in  the 
mountain  region  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  I  have  listened 
with  attention  and  concern  to  the  numerous  charges  of  mis 
conduct  and  injustice  that  representatives  both  of  employ 
ers  and  of  employees  have  made  against  each  other.  I  am 
not  so  much  concerned,  however,  with  the  manner  in  which 
they  have  treated  each  other  in  the  past  as  I  am  desirous 
of  seeing  some  kind  of  a  working  arrangement  arrived  at 
for  the  future,  particularly  during  the  period  of  the  war, 
on  a  basis  that  will  be  fair  to  all  parties  concerned. 

To  assist  in  the  accomplishment  of  that  purpose  I  have 
decided  to  appoint  a  commission  to  visit  the  localities  where 
disagreements  have  been  most  frequent  as  my  personal  rep 
resentatives.  The  commission  will  consist  of  William  B. 
Wilson,  Secretary  of  Labor;  Colonel  J.  L.  Spangler  of 
Pennsylvania,  Verner  Z.  Reed  of  Colorado,  John  H.  Walker 
of  Illinois,  and  E.  P.  Marsh  of  Washington.  Felix  Frank 
furter  of  New  York  will  act  as  Secretary  of  the  commission. 

It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  commission  to  visit  in  each  in 
stance  the  Governor  of  the  State,  advising  him  that  they 
are  there  as  the  personal  representatives  of  the  President, 
with  a  view  to  lending  sympathetic  counsel  and  aid  to  the 
State  government  in  the  development  of  a  better  under 
standing  between  laborers  and  employers,  and  also  them 
selves  to  deal  with  employers  and  employees  in  a  concilia- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

tory  spirit,  seek  to  compose  differences  and  allay  misunder 
standing,  and  in  any  way  that  may  be  open  to  them  to  show 
the  active  interest  of  the  National  Government  in  further 
ing  arrangements  just  to  both  sides. 

Wherever  it  is  deemed  advisable,  conferences  of  em 
ployers  and  employees  should  be  called  with  the  purpose 
of  working  out  a  mutual  understanding  between  them  which 
will  insure  the  continued  operation  of  the  industry  on 
conditions  acceptable  to  both  sides.  The  commission  should 
also  endeavor  to  learn  the  real  causes  for  any  discontent 
which  may  exist  on  either  side,  not  by  the  formal  process 
of  public  hearings,  but  by  getting  into  touch  with  workmen 
and  employers  by  the  more  informal  process  of  personal 
conversation. 

I  would  be  pleased  to  have  the  commission  report  to  me 
from  time  to  time  such  information  as  may  require  imme 
diate  attention. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON   COMMENDS   THE   WORK   OF   CONGRESS, 
OCTOBER  6,  1917 

[The  new  Congress  had  been  called  into  special  session  on 
April  2,  to  receive  the  President's  war  message.  It  had  passed 
the  war  resolution,  created  a  system  for  raising  a  large  army  by 
selective  conscription,  framed  a  revenue  bill  of  huge  proportions, 
and  adopted  other  legislation  relating  to  the  war.] 

The  Sixty-fifth  Congress,  now  adjourning,  deserves  the 
gratitude  and  appreciation  of  a  people  whose  will  and  pur 
pose  I  believe  it  has  faithfully  expressed.  One  cannot 
examine  the  record  of  its  action  without  being  impressed  by 
its  completeness,  its  courage,  and  its  full  comprehension  of 
a  great  task.  The  needs  of  the  Army  and  the  Navy  have 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

been  met  in  a  way  that  assures  the  effectiveness  of  Ameri 
can  armies,  and  the  war-making  branch  of  the  Government 
has  been  abundantly  equipped  with  the  powers  that  were 
necessary  to  make  the  action  of  the  nation  effective. 

I  believe  that  it  has  also  in  equal  degree,  and  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  face  of  war,  safeguarded  the  rights  of  the 
people  and  kept  in  mind  the  consideration  of  social  justice 
so  often  obscured  in  the  hasty  readjustment  of  such  a  crisis. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  work  of  this  remarkable  session 
has  not  only  been  done  thoroughly  but  that  it  has  also  been 
done  with  the  utmost  dispatch  possible  in  the  circumstances 
or  consistent  with  a  full  consideration  of  the  exceedingly 
critical  matters  dealt  with.  Best  of  all,  it  has  left  no  doubt 
as  to  the  spirit  and  determination  of  the  country,  but  has 
affirmed  them  as  loyally  and  as  emphatically  as  our  fine 
soldiers  will  affirm  them  on  the  firing  line. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


PROCLAMATION  DESIGNATING  A  "LIBERTY  LOAN"  DAY, 
OCTOBER  12,  1917 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  Participation  by  the  United  States 
in  the  war,  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  its  resources  and 
with  the  efforts  put  forth  by  other  belligerents,  required 
the  expenditure  of  vast  sums  of  money.  The  United  States 
was  not  only  to  finance  its  own  enormously  increased  army 
and  navy,  its  shipbuilding  and  aviation  programs,  but  it 
also  undertook  to  advance  to  its  allies  the  huge  sums  of 
money  required  to  pay  for  their  war  supplies  purchased  in 
the  United  States.  The  first  Liberty  Loan  (June,  1917), 
of  $2,000,000,000,  had  been  oversubscribed.  This  Second 
Liberty  Loan,  closed  on  October  27,  attracted  9,500,000 
subscribers,  and  $3,808,766,150  in  bonds  were  issued.] 

430 


Woodrow    Wilson 

The  Second  Liberty  Loan  gives  the  people  of  the  United 
States  another  opportunity  to  lend  their  funds  to  their 
Government  to  sustain  their  country  at  war.  The  might  of 
the  United  States  is  being  mobilized  and  organized  to  strike 
a  mortal  blow  at  autocracy  in  defense  of  outraged  American 
rights  and  of  the  cause  of  liberty.  Billions  of  dollars  are 
required  to  arm,  feed,  and  clothe  the  brave  men  who  are 
going  forth  to  fight  our  country's  battles  and  to  assist  the 
nations  with  whom  we  are  making  common  cause  against  a 
common  foe.  To  subscribe  to  the  Liberty  Loan  is  to  per 
form  a  service  of  patriotism. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  do  appoint  Wednesday,  the 
twenty-fourth  of  October,  as  Liberty  Day,  and  urge  and 
advise  the  people  to  assemble  in  their  respective  communi 
ties  and  pledge  to  one  another  and  to  the  Government  that 
represents  them  the  fullest  measure  of  financial  support. 
On  the  afternoon  of  that  day  I  request  that  patriotic  meet 
ings  be  held  in  every  city,  town,  and  hamlet  throughout 
the  land  under  the  general  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  and  the  immediate  direction  of  the  Liberty  Loan 
Committees  which  have  been  organized  by  the  Federal 
Reserve  Banks.  The  people  responded  nobly  to  the  call 
of  the  First  Liberty  Loan  with  an  over  subscription  of  more 
than  50  per  cent.  Let  the  response  to  the  second  loan  be 
even  greater  and  let  the  amount  be  so  large  that  it  will 
serve  as  an  assurance  of  unequalled  support  to  hearten  the 
men  who  are  to  face  the  fire  of  battle  for  us.  Let  the  result 
be  so  impressive  and  emphatic  that  it  will  echo  throughout 
the  empire  of  our  enemy  as  an  index  of  what  America  in 
tends  to  do  to  bring  this  war  to  a  victorious  conclusion. 

For  the  purpose  of  participating  in  Liberty  Day  celebra 
tions  all  employees  of  the  Federal  Government  throughout 
the  country  whose  services  can  be  spared,  may  be  excused 
at  twelve  o'clock,  Wednesday,  the  twenty-fourth  of  October. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

Two  MESSAGES  TO  BRAZIL,  ON  OCCASION  OF  ITS  ENTRY 
INTO  THE  WAR 

[The  republics  of  Latin  America  began  to  line  up  against  Ger 
many  soon  after  the  United  States  entered  the  war.  From  April 
to  December,  1917,  Peru,  Bolivia,  Ecuador,  Uruguay,  Guatemala, 
and  Costa  Rica  severed  diplomatic  relations  with  the  German 
Government,  while  Cuba,  Panama,  and  Brazil  actually  declared 
war.] 

October  30,  1917. 

Dr.  Wenceslao  Braz,  President  of  Brazil,  Rio  de  Janeiro: 
Allow  me,  speaking  for  the  people  and  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  to  say  with  what  genuine  pleasure  and 
heartfelt  welcome  we  hail  the  association  with  ourselves  and 
the  other  nations  united  in  war  with  Germany  of  the  great 
Republic  of  Brazil.  Her  action  in  this  time  of  crisis  binds 
even  closer  the  bonds  of  friendship  which  already  united 
the  two  Republics.  WOODROW  WILSON. 

November  15,  1917. 
His  Excellency  the  President  of  Brazil,  Rio  de  Janeiro: 

On  this  anniversary  of  the  independence  of  Brazil  I  ex 
tend  to  Your  Excellency  and  the  people  of  your  great  Re 
public  cordial  greetings.  The  United  States  has  welcomed 
with  applause  and  admiration  the  entry  of  Brazil  in  the 
great  struggle  which  confronts  us.  The  day  you  now  cele 
brate  marks  your  country's  achievements  of  independence. 
To-day  our  two  countries  are  engaged  in  a  war  for  the 
maintenance  of  world  independence  and  for  the  rights 
of  humanity  and  the  life  of  Democracy.  We  are  both 
making  sacrifices  for  this  common  cause.  United  to  Brazil 
by  this  strong  bond  of  Democracy  and  still  more  by  an 
tagonism  against  a  mutual  foe,  I  hope  and  feel  assured  that 
the  United  States  and  our  sister  Republic  of  South  America 
will  at  the  close  of  the  present  conflict  stand  even  closer 
together  in  victory.  WOODROW  WILSON. 


Woodrow    Wilson 

THANKSGIVING  PROCLAMATION 
NOVEMBER  7,  1917 

It  has  long  been  the  honored  custom  of  our  people  to 
turn  in  the  fruitful  autumn  of  the  year  in  praise  and  thanks 
giving  to  Almighty  God  for  His  many  blessings  and  mercies 
to  us  as  a  nation.  That  custom  we  can  follow  now  even  in 
the  midst  of  the  tragedy  of  a  world  shaken  by  war  and 
immeasurable  disaster,  in  the  midst  of  sorrow  and  great 
peril,  because  even  amidst  the  darkness  that  has  gathered 
about  us  we  can  see  the  great  blessings  God  has  bestowed 
upon  us,  blessings  that  are  better  than  mere  peace  of  mind 
and  prosperity  of  enterprise. 

We  have  been  given  the  opportunity  to  serve  mankind  as 
we  once  served  ourselves  in  the  great  day  of  our  Declaration 
of  Independence,  by  taking  up  arms  against  a  tyranny  that 
threatened  to  master  and  debase  men  everywhere  and  join7 
ing  with  other  free  peoples  in  demanding  for  all  the  nations 
of  the  world  what  we  then  demanded  and  obtained  for 
ourselves.  In  this  day  of  the  revelation  of  our  duty  not 
only  to  defend  our  own  rights  as  a  nation  but  to  defend 
also  the  rights  of  free  men  throughout  the  world,  there  has 
been  vouchsafed  us  in  full  and  inspiring  measure  the  resri- 
lution  and  spirit  of  united  action.  We  have  been  brought 
to  one  mind  and  purpose.  A  new  vigor  of  common  counsel 
and  common  action  has  been  revealed  in  us.  We  should 
especially  thank  God  that  in  such  circumstances,  in  the 
midst  of  the  greatest  enterprise  the  spirits  of  men  have  ever 
entered  upon,  we  have,  if  we  but  observe  a  reasonable  and 
practicable  economy,  abundance  with  which  to  supply  the 
needs  of  those  associated  with  us  as  well  as  our  own.  A 
new  light  shines  about  us.  The  great  duties  of  a  new  day 
awaken  a  new  and  greater  national  spirit  in  us.  We  shall 
never  again  be  divided  or  wonder  what  stuff  we  are  made  of. 

And  while  we  render  thanks  for  these  things  let  us  pray 
Almighty  God  that  in  all  humbleness  of  spirit  we  may  look 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

always  to  Him  for  guidance;  that  we  may  be  kept  constant 
in  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  service;  that  by  His  grace 
our  minds  may  be  directed  and  our  hands  strengthened ;  and 
that  in  His  good  time  liberty  and  security  and  peace  and 
the  comradeship  of  a  common  justice  may  be  vouchsafed 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Wherefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  do  hereby  designate  Thursday,  the 
twenty-ninth  day  of  November  next,  as  a  day  of  thanks 
giving  and  prayer,  and  invite  the  people  throughout  the 
land  to  cease  upon  that  day  from  their  ordinary  occupations 
and  in  their  several  homes  and  places  of  worship  to  render 
thanks  to  God,  the  great  ruler  of  nations. 

IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  in  the  District  of  Columbia  this  seventh  day  of  November 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen 
and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  one 
hundred  and  forty-second. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 
By  the  President: 

ROBERT  LANSING,  Secretary  of  State. 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  AMERICAN  FEDERATION 
OF  LABOR,  BUFFALO,  N.  Y.,  NOVEMBER  12,  1917 

[In  this  address  to  representatives  of  organized  labor,  the 
President  first  describes  the  way  in  which  the  German  Govern 
ment  has  gained  control  not  only  of  German  industries  and  com 
merce,  but  also  of  vital  affairs  in  Austria-Hungary,  the  Balkan 
states,  Turkey,  and  Asia  Minor.  Then  he  shows  the  impossibility 
of  peace  with  the  present  German  Government.  Finally — with 
specific  reference  to  tension  in  labor  circles,  due  to  shortage  of 
man  power,  rising  cost  of  living,  and  actual  or  threatened  strikes — 
the  President  makes  a  special  plea  that  there  shall  be  no  interrup 
tion  of  the  processes  of  labor,  so  necessary  for  the  successful  pros 
ecution  of  the  war,  until  all  the  methods  of  conciliation  and 
settlement  have  been  exhausted.] 


Woodrow    Wilson 

Mr.  President,  Delegates  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  esteem  it  a  great  privilege  and  a  real  honor  to  be  thus 
admitted  to  your  public  counsels.  When  your  executive 
committee  paid  me  the  compliment  of  inviting  me  here,  I 
gladly  accepted  the  invitation  because  it  seems  to  me  that 
this,  above  all  other  times  in  our  history,  is  the  time  for 
common  counsel,  for  the  drawing  together  not  only  of  the 
energies  but  of  the  minds  of  the  Nation.  I  thought  that  it 
was  a  welcome  opportunity  for  disclosing  to  you  some  of  the 
thoughts  that  have  been  gathering  in  my  mind  during  the 
last  momentous  months. 

I  am  introduced  to  you  as  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  yet  I  would  be  pleased  if  you  would  put  the 
thought  of  the  office  into  the  background  and  regard  me 
as  one  of  your  fellow  citizens  who  has  come  here  to  speak, 
not  the  words  of  authority,  but  the  words  of  counsel;  the 
words  which  men  should  speak  to  one  another  who  wish  to 
be  frank  in  a  moment  more  critical  perhaps  than  the  history 
of  the  world  has  ever  yet  known ;  a  moment  when  it  is  every 
man's  duty  to  forget  himself,  to  forget  his  own  interests,  to 
fill  himself  with  the  nobility  of  a  great  national  and  world 
conception,  and  act  upon  a  new  platform  elevated  above  the 
ordinary  affairs  of  life  and  lifted  to  where  men  have  views 
of  the  long  destiny  of  mankind.  I  think  that  in  order  to 
realize  just  what  this  moment  of  counsel  is  it  is  very  de 
sirable  that  we  should  remind  ourselves  just  how  this  war 
came  about  and  just  what  it  is  for.  You  can  explain  most 
wars  very  simply,  but  the  explanation  of  this  is  not  so  sim 
ple.  Its  roots  run  deep  into  all  the  obscure  soils  of  history, 
and  in  my  view  this  is  the  last  decisive  issue  between  the 
old  principles  of  power  and  the  new  principles  of  freedom. 

The  war  was  started  by  Germany.  Her  authorities  deny 
that  they  started  it,  but  I  am  willing  to  let  the  statement 
I  have  just  made  await  the  verdict  of  history.  And  the 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

thing  that  needs  to  be  explained  is  why  Germany  started 
the  war.  Remember  what  the  position  of  Germany  in  the 
world  was — as  enviable  a  position  as  any  nation  has  ever 
occupied.  The  whole  world  stood  at  admiration  of  her  won 
derful  intellectual  and  material  achievements.  All  the  in 
tellectual  men  of  the  world  went  to  school  to  her.  As  a 
university  man  I  have  been  surrounded  by  men  trained  in 
Germany,  men  who  had  resorted  to  Germany  because  no 
where  else  could  they  get  such  thorough  and  searching 
training,  particularly  in  the  principles  of  science  and  the 
principles  that  underlie  modern  material  achievement.  Her 
men  of  science  had  made  her  industries  perhaps  the  most 
competent  industries  of  the  world,  and  the  label  "Made  in 
Germany"  was  a  guarantee  of  good  workmanship  and  of 
sound  material.  She  had  access  to  all  the  markets  of  the 
world,  and  every  other  who  traded  in  those  markets  feared 
Germany  because  of  her  effective  and  almost  irresistible 
competition.  She  had  a  "place  in  the  sun." 

Why  was  she  not  satisfied?  What  more  did  she  want? 
There  was  nothing  in  the  world  of  peace  that  she  did  not 
already  have  and  have  in  abundance.  We  boast  of  the  ex 
traordinary  pace  of  American  advancement.  We  show  with 
pride  the  statistics  of  the  increase  of  our  industries  and  of 
the  population  of  our  cities.  Well,  those  statistics  did  not 
match  the  recent  statistics  of  Germany.  Her  old  cities 
took  on  youth,  grew  faster  than  any  American  cities  ever 
grew.  Her  old  industries  opened  their  eyes  and  saw  a  new 
world  and  went  out  for  its  conquest.  And  yet  the  authori 
ties  of  Germany  were  not  satisfied.  You  have  one  part  of 
the  answer  to  the  question  why  she  was  not  satisfied  in 
her  methods  of  competition.  There  is  no  important  indus 
try  in  Germany  upon  which  the  Government  has  not  laid 
its  hands,  to  direct  it  and,  when  necessity  arose,  control  it; 
and  you  have  only  to  ask  any  man  whom  you  meet  who  is 
familiar  with  the  conditions  that  prevailed  before  the  war 
in  the  matter  of  national  competition  to  find  out  the  methods 


Woodrow    Wilson 

of  competition  which  the  German  manufacturer  and  ex 
porters  used  under  the  patronage  and  support  of  the  Gov 
ernment  of  Germany.  You  will  find  that  they  were  the 
same  sorts  of  competition  that  we  have  tried  to  prevent  by 
law  within  our  own  borders.  If  they  could  not  sell  their 
goods  cheaper  than  we  could  sell  ours  at  a  profit  to  them 
selves  they  could  get  a  subsidy  from  the  Government  which 
made  it  possible  to  sell  them  cheaper  anyhow,  and  the  con 
ditions  of  competition  were  thus  controlled  in  large  measure 
by  the  German  Government  itself. 

But  that  did  not  satisfy  the  German  Government.  All 
the  while  there  was  lying  behind  its  thought  in  its  dreams 
of  the  future  a  political  control  which  would  enable  it  in 
the  long  run  to  dominate  the  labor  and  the  industry  of  the 
world.  They  were  not  content  with  success  by  superior 
achievement;  they  wanted  success  by  authority.  I  suppose 
very  few  of  you  have  thought  much  about  the  Berlin-to- 
Bagdad  Railway.  The  Berlin-Bagdad  Railway  was  con 
structed  in  order  to  run  the  threat  of  force  down  the  flank 
of  the  industrial  undertakings  of  half  a  dozen  other  coun 
tries;  so  that  when  German  competition  came  in  it  would 
not  be  resisted  too  far,  because  there  was  always  the  pos 
sibility  of  getting  German  armies  into  the  heart  of  that 
country  quicker  than  any  other  armies  could  be  got  there. 

Look  at  the  map  of  Europe  now !  Germany  in  thrusting 
upon  us  again  and  again  the  discussion  of  peace  talks  about 
what  ?  Talks  about  Belgium ;  talks  about  northern  France ; 
talks  about  Alsace-Lorraine.  Well,  those  are  deeply  inter 
esting  subjects  to  us  and  to  them,  but  they  are  not  talking 
about  the  heart  of  the  matter.  Take  the  map  and  look 
at  it.  Germany  has  absolute  control  of  Austria-Hungary, 
practical  control  of  the  Balkan  States,  control  of  Turkey, 
control  of  Asia  Minor.  I  saw  a  map  in  which  the  whole 
thing  was  printed  in  appropriate  black  the  other  day,  and 
the  black  stretched  all  the  way  from  Hamburg  to  Bagdad 
• — the  bulk  of  German  power  inserted  into  the  heart  of  the 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

world.  If  she  can  keep  that,  she  has  kept  all  that  her 
dreams  contemplated  when  the  war  began.  If  she  can  keep 
that,  her  power  can  disturb  the  world  as  long  as  she  keeps 
it,  always  provided,  for  I  feel  bound  to  put  this  proviso  in 
— always  provided  the  present  influences  that  control  the 
German  Government  continue  to  control  it.  I  believe  that 
the  spirit  of  freedom  can  get  into  the  hearts  of  Germans 
and  find  as  fine  a  welcome  there  as  it  can  find  in  any  other 
hearts,  but  the  spirit  of  freedom  does  not  suit  the  plans  of 
the  Pan-Germans.  Power  cannot  be  used  with  concen 
trated  force  against  free  peoples  if  it  is  used  by  free  people. 

You  know  how  many  intimations  come  to  us  from  one  of 
the  central  powers  that  it  is  more  anxious  for  peace  than 
the  chief  central  power,  and  you  know  that  it  means  that 
the  people  in  that  central  power  know  that  if  the  war  ends 
as  it  stands  they  will  in  effect  themselves  be  vassals  of 
Germany,  notwithstanding  that  their  populations  are  com 
pounded  of  all  the  peoples  of  that  part  of  the  world,  and 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  do  not  wish  in  their 
pride  and  proper  spirit  of  nationality  to  be  so  absorbed  and 
dominated.  Germany  is  determined  that  the  political  power 
of  the  world  shall  belong  to  her.  There  have  been  such 
ambitions  before.  They  have  been  in  part  realized,  but 
never  before  have  those  ambitions  been  based  upon  so  exact 
and  precise  and  scientific  a  plan  of  domination. 

May  I  not  say  that  it  is  amazing  to  me  that  any  group  of 
persons  should  be  so  ill-informed  as  to  suppose,  as  some 
groups  in  Russia  apparently  suppose,  that  any  reforms 
planned  in  the  interest  of  the  people  can  live  in  the  pres 
ence  of  a  Germany  powerful  enough  to  undermine  or  over 
throw  them  by  intrigue  or  force?  Any  body  of  free  men 
that  compounds  with  the  present  German  Government  is 
compounding  for  its  own  destruction.  But  that  is  not  the 
whole  of  the  story.  Any  man  in  America  or  anywhere  else 
that  supposes  that  the  free  industry  and  enterprise  of  the 
world  can  continue  if  the  Pan-German  plan  is  achieved  and 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

German  power  fastened  upon  the  world  is  as  fatuous  as  the 
dreamers  in  Russia.  What  I  am  opposed  to  is  not  the  feel 
ing  of  the  pacifists,  but  their  stupidity.  My  heart  is  with 
them,  but  my  mind  has  a  contempt  for  them.  I  want  peace, 
but  I  know  how  to  get  it,  and  they  do  not. 

You  will  notice  that  I  sent  a  friend  of  mine,  Col.  House, 
to  Europe,  who  is  as  great  a  lover  of  peace  as  any  man  in 
the  world,  but  I  didn't  send  him  on  a  peace  mission  yet.  I 
sent  him  to  take  part  in  a  conference  as  to  how  the  war  was 
to  be  won,  and  he  knows,  as  I  know,  that  that  is  the  way 
to  get  peace  if  you  want  it  for  more  than  a  few  minutes. 

All  of  this  is  a  preface  to  the  conference  that  I  have 
referred  to  with  regard  to  what  we  are  going  to  do.  If  we 
are  true  friends  of  freedom  of  our  own  or  anybody  else's, 
we  will  see  that  the  power  of  this  country  and  the  produc 
tivity  of  this  country  is  raised  to  its  absolute  maximum,  and 
that  absolutely  nobody  is  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  it. 
When  I  say  that  nobody  is  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  I 
do  not  mean  that  they  shall  be  prevented  by  the  power  of 
the  Government  but  by  the  power  of  the  American  spirit. 
Our  duty,  if  we  are  to  do  this  great  thing  and  show  America 
to  be  what  we  believe  her  to  be — the  greatest  hope  and 
energy  of  the  world — is  to  stand  together  night  and  day  un 
til  the  job  is  finished. 

While  we  are  fighting  for  freedom  we  must  see  among 
other  things,  that  labor  is  free,  and  that  means  a  number  - 
of  interesting  things.  It  means  not  only  that  we  must  do 
what  we  have  declared  our  purpose  to  do,  see  that  the  con~ 
ditions  of  labor  are  not  rendered  more  onerous  by  the  war 
but  also  that  we  shall  see  to  it  that  the  instrumentalities  by 
which  the  conditions  of  labor  are  improved  are  not  blocked 
or  checked.  That  we  must  do.  That  has  been  the  matter 
about  which  I  have  taken  pleasure  in  conferring  from  time 
to  time  with  your  president,  Mr.  Gompers ;  and  if  I  may  be 
permitted  to  do  so,  I  want  to  express  my  admiration  of  his 
patriotic  courage,  his  large  vision,  and  his  statesmanlike 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

sense  of  what  has  to  be  done.  I  like  to  lay  my  mind  along 
side  of  a  mind  that  knows  how  to  pull  in  harness.  The 
horses  that  kick  over  the  traces  will  have  to  be  put  in 
corral. 

Now,  to  stand  together  means  that  nobody  must  interrupt 
the  processes  of  our  energy  if  the  interruption  can  possibly 
be  avoided  without  the  absolute  invasion  of  freedom.  To 
put  it  concretely,  that  means  this:  Nobody  has  a  right  to 
stop  the  processes  of  labor  until  all  the  methods  of  con 
ciliation  and  settlement  have  been  exhausted.  And  I  might 
as  well  say  right  here  that  I  am  not  talking  to  you  alone. 
You  sometimes  stop  the  courses  of  labor,  but  there  are 
others  who  do  the  same,  and  I  believe  that  I  am  speaking 
from  my  own  experience  not  only,  but  from  the  experience 
of  others  when  I  say  that  you  are  reasonable  in  a  larger 
number  of  cases  than  the  capitalists.  I  am  not  saying  these 
things  to  them  personally  yet,  because  I  have  not  had  a 
chance,  but  they  have  to  be  said,  not  in  any  spirit  of  criti 
cism,  but  in  order  to  clear  the  atmosphere  and  come  down 
to  business.  Everybody  on  both  sides  has  now  got  to  trans 
act  business,  and  a  settlement  is  never  impossible  when 
both  sides  want  to  do  the  square  and  right  thing. 

Moreover,  a  settlement  is  always  hard  to  avoid  when  the 
parties  can  be  brought  face  to  face.  I  can  differ  from  a 
man  much  more  radically  when  he  is  not  in  the  room  than 
I  can  when  he  is  in  the  room,  because  then  the  awkward 
thing  is  he  can  come  back  at  me  and  answer  what  I  say. 
It  is  always  dangerous  for  a  man  to  have  the  floor  entirely. 
to  himself.  Therefore,  we  must  insist  in  every  instance 
that  the  parties  come  into  each  other's  presence  and  there 
discuss  the  issues  between  them  and  not  separately  in 
places  which  have  no  communication  with  each  other.  I 
always  like  to  remind  myself  of  a  delightful  saying  of  an 
Englishman  of  the  past  generation,  Charles  Lamb.  He 
stuttered  a  little  bit,  and  once  when  he  was  with  a  group 
of  friends  he  spoke  very  harshly  of  some  man  who  was  not 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

present.  One  of  his  friends  said:  "Why,  Charles,  I  didn't 
know  that  you  knew  so  and  so."  "O-o-oh,"  he  said,  "I-I 
d-d-don't;  I-I  can't  h-h-hate  a  m-m-man  I-I  know."  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  human  nature,  of  very  pleasant  human 
nature,  in  the  saying.  It  is  hard  to  hate  a  man  you  know. 
I  may  admit,  parenthetically,  that  there  are  some  politi 
cians  whose  methods  I  do  not  at  all  believe  in,  but  they 
are  jolly  good  fellows,  and  if  they  only  would  not  talk 
the  wrong  kind  of  politics,  I  would  love  to  be  with  them. 

So  it  is  all  along  the  line,  in  serious  matters  and  things 
less  serious.  We  are  all  of  the  same  clay  and  spirit,  and 
we  can  get  together  if  we  desire  to  get  together.  There 
fore,  my  counsel  to  you  is  this :  Let  us  show  ourselves  Amer 
icans  by  showing  that  we  do  not  want  to  go  off  in  separate 
camps  or  groups  by  ourselves,  but  that  we  want  to  co 
operate  with  all  other  classes  and  all  other  groups  in  the 
common  enterprise  which  is  to  release  the  spirits  of  the 
world  from  bondage.  I  would  be  willing  to  set  that  up  as 
the  final  test  of  an  American.  That  is  the  meaning  of  de 
mocracy.  I  have  been  very  much  distressed,  my  fellow 
citizens,  by  some  of  the  things  that  have  happened  recently. 
The  mob  spirit  is  displaying  itself  here  and  there  in  this 
country.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  what  some  men  are 
saying,  but  I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  men  who  take 
their  punishment  into  their  own  hands;  and  I  want  to  say 
to  every  man  who  does  join  such  a  mob  that  I  do  not  recog 
nize  him  as  worthy  of  the  free  institutions  of  the  United 
States.  There  are  some  organizations  in  this  country  whose 
object  is  anarchy  and  the  destruction  of  law,  but  I  would 
not  meet  their  efforts  by  making  myself  partner  in  destroy 
ing  the  law.  I  despise  and  hate  theif  'purposes  as  much  as 
any  man,  but  I  respect  the  ancient  processes  of  justice;  and 
I  would  be  too  proud  not  to  see  them  done  justice,  however 
wrong  they  are. 

So  I  want  to  utter  my  earnest  protest  against  any  mani 
festation  of  the  spirit  of  lawlessness  anywhere  or  in  any 

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cause.  Why,  gentlemen,  look  what  it  means.  We  claim 
to  be  the  greatest  democratic  people  in  the  world,  and  de 
mocracy  means  first  of  all  that  we  can  govern  ourselves. 
If  our  men  have  not  self-control,  then  they  are  not  capable 
of  that  great  thing  which  we  call  democratic  government. 
A  man  who  takes  the  law  into  his  own  hands  is  not  the  right 
man  to  cooperate  in  any  formation  or  development  of  law 
and  institutions,  and  some  of  the  processes  by  which  the 
struggle  between  capital  and  labor  is  carried  on  are  proc 
esses  that  come  very  near  to  taking  the  law  into  your  own 
hands.  I  do  not  mean  for  a  moment  to  compare  it  with 
what  I  have  just  been  speaking  of,  but  I  want  you  to  see 
that  they  are  mere  gradations  in  this  manifestation  of  the 
unwillingness  to  cooperate,  and  that  the  fundamental  lesson 
of  the  whole  situation  is  that  we  must  not  only  take  common 
counsel,  but  that  we  must  yield  to  and  obey  common  coun 
sel.  Not  all  of  the  instrumentalities  for  this  are  at  hand. 
I  am  hopeful  that  in  the  very  near  future  new  instrumentali 
ties  may  be  organized  by  which  we  can  see  to  it  that  various 
things  that  are  now  going  on  ought  not  to  go  on.  There  are 
various  processes  of  the  dilution  of  labor  and  the  unneces 
sary  substitution  of  labor  and  the  bidding  in  distant  mar 
kets  and  unfairly  upsetting  the  whole  competition  of  labor 
which  ought  not  to  go  on.  I  mean  now  on  the  part  of  em 
ployers,  and  we  must  interject  into  this  some  instrumen 
tality  of  cooperation  by  which  the  fair  thing  will  be  done 
all  around.  I  am  hopeful  that  some  such  instrumentalities 
may  be  devised,  but  whether  they  are  or  not,  we  must  use 
those  that  we  have  and  upon  every  occasion  where  it  is 
necessary  have  such  an  instrumentality  originated  upon 
that  occasion. 

So,  my  fellow  citizens,  the  reason  I  came  away  from 
Washington  is  that  I  sometimes  get  lonely  down  there. 
There  are  so  many  people  in  Washington  who  know  things 
that  are  not  so,  and  there  are  so  few  people  who  know  any 
thing  about  what  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  think- 


Woodrow    Wilson 

ing  about.  I  have  to  come  away  and  get  reminded  of  the 
rest  of  the  country.  I  have  to  come  away  and  talk  to  men 
who  are  up  against  the  real  thing,  and  say  to  them,  "I  am 
with  you  if  you  are  with  me."  And  the  only  test  of  being 
with  me  is  not  to  think  about  me  personally  at  all,  but 
merely  to  think  of  me  as  the  expression  for  the  time  being 
of  the  power  and  dignity  and  hope  of  the  United  States. 


WILSON'S  FIFTH  ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS 

(Delivered  before   Congress   in  Joint   Session, 
December  4,  1917) 

[The  President  here  recommends  that  Congress  extend  the  state 
of  war  to  include  Austria-Hungary.  He  declares  that  the  United 
States  should  devote  every  power  and  resource  to  the  immediate 
task  of  winning  the  war.  German  power  must  be  crushed,  or  shut 
out  from  the  friendly  intercourse  of  nations;  and  the  peoples  of 
Austria-Hungary,  the  Balkans,  and  Turkey  must  be  delivered 
from  the  domination  of  the  Prussian  military  and  commercial 
autocracy.  But  the  United  States  does  not  wish  to  rearrange  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Empire,  nor  is  any  interference  intended  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  the  German  Empire.] 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

Eight  months  have  elapsed  since  I  last  had  the  honor 
of  addressing  you.  They  have  been  months  crowded  with 
events  of  immense  and  grave  significance  for  us.  I  shall 
not  undertake  to  retail  or  even  to  summarize  those  events. 
The  practical  particulars  of  the  part  we  have  played  in 
them  will  be  laid  before  you  in  the  reports  of  the  executive 
departments.  I  shall  discuss  only  our  present  outlook 
upon  these  vast  affairs,  our  present  duties,  and  the  imme 
diate  means  of  accomplishing  the  objects  we  shall  hold 
always  in  view. 

I  shall  not  go  back  to  debate  the  causes  of  the  war.  The 
intolerable  wrongs  done  and  planned  against  us  by  the 
sinister  masters  of  Germany  have  long  since  become  too 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

grossly  obvious  and  odious  to  every  true  American  to  need 
to  be  rehearsed.  But  I  shall  ask  you  to  consider  again  and 
with  a  very  grave  scrutiny  our  objectives  and  the  measures 
by  which  we  mean  to  attain  them;  for  the  purpose  of  dis 
cussion  here  in  this  place  is  action,  and  our  action  must 
move  straight  toward  definite  ends.  Our  object  is,  of 
course,  to  win  the  war;  and  we  shall  not  slacken  or  suffer 
ourselves  to  be  diverted  until  it  is  won.  But  it  is  worth 
while  asking  and  answering  the  question,  When  shall  we 
consider  the  war  won? 

From  one  point  of  view  it  is  not  necessary  to  broach  this 
fundamental  matter.  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  American 
people  know  what  the  war  is  about  and  what  sort  of  an 
outcome  they  will  regard  as  a  realization  of  their  purpose 
in  it.  As  a  Nation  we  are  united  in  spirit  and  intention. 
I  pay  little  heed  to  those  who  tell  me  otherwise.  I  hear 
the  voices  of  dissent — who  does  not?  I  hear  the  criticism 
and  the  clamor  of  the  noisily  thoughtless  and  troublesome. 
I  also  see  men  here  and  there  fling  themselves  in  impotent 
disloyalty  against  the  calm,  indomitable  power  of  the  Na 
tion.  I  hear  men  debate  peace  who  understand  neither  its 
nature  nor  the  way  in  which  we  may  attain  it  with  up 
lifted  eyes  and  unbroken  spirits.  But  I  know  that  none  of 
these  speaks  for  the  Nation.  They  do  not  touch  the  heart 
of  anything.  They  may  safely  be  left  to  strut  their  uneasy 
hour  and  be  forgotten. 

But  from  another  point  of  view  I  believe  that  it  is  neces 
sary  to  say  plainly  what  we  here  at  the  seat  of  action  con 
sider  the  war  to  be  for  and  what  part  we  mean  to  play  in 
the  settlement  of  its  searching  issues.  We  are  the  spokes 
men  of  the  American  people  and  they  have  a  right  to  know 
whether  their  purpose  is  ours.  They  desire  peace  by  the 
overcoming  of  evil,  by  the  defeat  once  for  all  of  the  sinister 
forces  that  interrupt  peace  and  render  it  impossible,  and 
they  wish  to  know  how  closely  our  thought  runs  with  theirs 
and  what  action  we  propose.  They  are  impatient  with  those 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

who  desire  peace  by  any  sort  of  compromise — deeply  and 
indignantly  impatient — but  they  will  be  equally  impatient 
with  us  if  we  do  not  make  it  plain  to  them  what  our  ob 
jectives  are  and  what  we  are  planning  for  in  seeking  to 
make  conquest  of  peace  by  arms. 

I  believe  that  I  speak  for  them  when  I  say  two  things: 
First,  that  this  intolerable  Thing  of  which  the  masters  of 
Germany  have  shown  us  the  ugly  face,  this  menace  of  com 
bined  intrigue  and  force  which  we  now  see  so  clearly  as  the 
German  power,  a  Thing  without  conscience  or  honor  or  ca 
pacity  for  covenanted  peace,  must  be  crushed,  and  if  it  be 
not  utterly  brought  to  an  end,  at  least  shut  out  from  the 
friendly  intercourse  of  the  nations;  and,  second,  that  when 
this  Thing  and  its  power  are  indeed  defeated  and  the  time 
comes  that  we  can  discuss  peace — when  the  German  people 
have  spokesmen  whose  word  we  can  believe  and  when  those 
spokesmen  are  ready  in  the  name  of  their  people  to  accept 
the  common  judgment  of  the  nations  as  to  what  shall  hence 
forth  be  the  bases  of  law  and  of  covenant  for  the  life  of  the 
world — we  shall  be  willing  and  glad  to  pay  the  full  price  for 
peace,  and  pay  it  ungrudgingly.  We  know  what  that  price 
will  be.  It  will  be  full,  impartial  justice — justice  done  at 
every  point  and  to  every  nation  that  the  final  settlement 
must  affect  our  enemies  as  well  as  our  friends. 

You  catch,  with  me,  the  voices  of  humanity  that  are  in 
the  air.  They  grow  daily  more  audible,  more  articulate, 
more  persuasive,  and  they  come  from  the  hearts  of  men 
everywhere.  They  insist  that  the  war  shall  not  end  in  vin 
dictive  action  of  any  kind;  that  no  nation  or  peoples  shall 
be  robbed  or  punished  because  the  irresponsible  rulers  of 
a  single  country  have  themselves  done  deep  and  abominable 
wrong.  It  is  this  thought  that  has  been  expressed  in  the 
formula  "No  annexations,  no  contributions,  no  punitive  in 
demnities."  Just  because  this  crude  formula  expresses  the 
instinctive  judgment  as  to  right  of  plain  men  everywhere 
it  has  been  made  diligent  use  of  by  the  masters  of  German 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

intrigue  to  lead  the  people  of  Russia  astray — and  the  peo 
ple  of  every  other  country  their  agents  could  reach,  in  order 
that  a  premature  peace  might  be  brought  about  before 
autocracy  has  been  taught  its  final  and  convincing  lesson, 
and  the  people  of  the  world  put  in  control  of  their  own 
destinies. 

But  the  fact  that  a  wrong  use  has  been  made  of  a  just 
idea  is  no  reason  why  a  right  use  should  not  be  made  of  it. 
It  ought  to  be  brought  under  the  patronage  of  its  real 
friends.  Let  it  be  said  again  that  autocracy  must  first  be 
shown  the  utter  futility  of  its  claims  to  power  or  leadership 
in  the  modern  world.  It  is  impossible  to  apply  any  stand 
ard  of  justice  so  long  as  such  forces  are  unchecked  and 
undefeated  as  the  present  masters  of  Germany  command. 
Not  until  that  has  been  done  can  Right  be  set  up  as  arbiter 
and  peacemaker  among  the  nations.  But  when  that  has 
been  done — as,  God  willing,  it  assuredly  will  be — we  shall 
at  last  be  free  to  do  an  unprecedented  thing,  and  this  is 
the  time  to  avow  our  purpose  to  do  it.  We  shall  be  free 
to  base  peace  on  generosity  and  justice,  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  selfish  claims  to  advantage  even  on  the  part  of  the 
victors. 

Let  there  be  no  misunderstanding.  Our  present  and  im 
mediate  task  is  to  win  the  war,  and  nothing  shall  turn  us 
aside  from  it  until  it  is  accomplished.  Every  power  and 
resource  we  possess,  whether  of  men,  of  money,  or  ma 
terials,  is  being  devoted  and  will  continue  to  be  devoted 
to  that  purpose  until  it  is  achieved.  Those  who  desire  to 
bring  peace  about  before  that  purpose  is  achieved  I  coun 
sel  to  carry  their  advice  elsewhere.  We  will  not  entertain 
it.  We  shall  regard  the  war  as  won  only  when  the  German 
people  say  to  us,  through  properly  accredited  representa 
tives,  that  they  are  ready  to  agree  to  a  settlement  based 
upon  justice  and  the  reparation  of  the  wrongs  their  rulers 
have  done.  They  have  done  a  wrong  to  Belgium  which 
must  be  repaired.  They  have  established  a  power  over 


Woodrow    Wilson 

other  lands  and  peoples  than  their  own — over  the  great 
Empire  of  Austria-Hungary,  over  hitherto  free  Balkan 
states,  over  Turkey,  and  within  Asia — which  must  be  re 
linquished. 

Germany's  success  by  skill,  by  industry,  by  knowledge, 
by  enterprise,  we  did  not  grudge  or  oppose,  but  admired, 
rather.  She  had  built  up  for  herself  a  real  empire  of  trade 
and  influence,  secured  by  the  peace  of  the  world.  We  were 
content  to  abide  the  rivalries  of  manufacture,  science,  and 
commerce  that  were  involved  for  us  in  her  success  and 
stand  or  fall  as  we  had  or  did  not  have  the  brains  and  the 
initiative  to  surpass  her.  But  at  the  moment  when  she  had 
conspicuously  won  her  triumphs  of  peace  she  threw  them 
away  to  establish  in  their  stead  what  the  world  will  no 
longer  permit  to  be  established,  military  and  political  domi 
nation  by  arms  by  which  to  oust  where  she  could  not  excel 
the  rivals  she  most  feared  and  hated.  The  peace  we  make 
must  remedy  that  wrong.  It  must  deliver  the  once  fair 
lands  and  happy  peoples  of  Belgium  and  northern  France 
from  the  Prussian  conquest  and  the  Prussian  »menace,  but 
it  must  also  deliver  the  peoples  of  Austria-Hungary,  the 
peoples  of  the  Balkans,  and  the  peoples  of  Turkey,  alike  in 
Europe  and  in  Asia,  from  the  impudent  and  alien  dominion 
of  the  Prussian  military  and  commercial  autocracy. 

We  owe  it,  however,  to  ourselves  to  say  that  we  do  not 
wish  in  any  way  to  impair  or  to  rearrange  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Empire.  It  is  no  affair  of  ours  what  they  do  with 
their  own  life,  either  industrially  or  politically.  We  do 
not  purpose  or  desire  to  dictate  to  them  in  any  way.  We 
only  desire  to  see  that  their  affairs  are  left  in  their  own 
hands,  in  all  matters,  great  or  small.  We  shall  hope  to 
secure  for  the  peoples  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  for 
the  people  of  the  Turkish  Empire  the  right  and  opportunity 
to  make  their  own  lives  safe,  their  own  fortunes  secure 
against  oppression  or  injustice  and  from  the  dictation  of 
foreign  courts  or  parties. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

And  our  attitude  and  purpose  with  regard  to  Germany 
herself  are  of  a  like  kind.  We  intend  no  wrong  against 
the  German  Empire,  no  interference  with  her  internal  af 
fairs.  We  should  deem  either  the  one  or  the  other  abso 
lutely  unjustifiable,  absolutely  contrary  to  the  principles  we 
have  professed  to  live  by  and  to  hold  most  sacred  through 
out  our  life  as  a  nation. 

The  people  of  Germany  are  being  told  by  the  men  whom 
they  now  permit  to  deceive  them  and  to  act  as  their  masters 
that  they  are  fighting  for  the  very  life  and  existence  of 
their  Empire,  a  war  of  desperate  self-defense  against  de 
liberate  aggression.  Nothing  could  be  more  grossly  or 
wantonly  false,  and  we  must  seek  by  the  utmost  openness 
and  candor  as  to  our  real  aims  to  convince  them  of  its  false 
ness.  We  are  in  fact  fighting  for  their  emancipation  from 
fear,  along  with  our  own — from  the  fear  as  well  as  from 
the  fact  of  unjust  attack  by  neighbors  or  rivals  or  schemers 
after  world  empire.  No  one  is  threatening  the  existence  or 
the  independence  or  the  peaceful  enterprise  of  the  German 
Empire. 

The  worst  that  can  happen  to  the  detriment  of  the  Ger 
man  people  is  this,  that  if  they  should  still,  after  the  war 
is  over,  continue  to  be  obliged  to  live  under  ambitious  and 
intriguing  masters  interested  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
world,  men  or  classes  of  men  whom  the  other  peoples  of 
the  world  could  not  trust,  it  might  be  impossible  to  admit 
them  to  the  partnership  of  nations  which  must  henceforth 
guarantee  the  world's  peace.  That  partnership  must  be  a 
partnership  of  peoples,  not  a  mere  partnership  of  gov 
ernments.  It  might  be  impossible,  also,  in  such  untoward 
circumstances,  to  admit  Germany  to  the  free  economic  in 
tercourse  which  must  inevitably  spring  out  of  the  other 
partnerships  of  a  real  peace.  But  there  would  be  no  ag 
gression  in  that;  and  such  a  situation,  inevitable  because  of 
distrust,  would  in  the  very  nature  of  things  sooner  or 
later  cure  itself,  by  processes  which  would  assuredly  set  in. 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

The  wrongs,  the  very  deep  wrongs,  committed  in  this 
war  will  have  to  be  righted.  That  of  course.  But  they 
cannot  and  must  not  be  righted  by  the  commission  of  similar 
wrongs  against  Germany  and  her  allies.  The  world  will 
not  permit  the  commission  of  similar  wrongs  as  a  means  of 
reparation  and  settlement.  Statesmen  must  by  this  time 
hare  learned  that  the  opinion  of  the  world  is  everywhere 
wide  awake  and  fully  comprehends  the  issues  involved. 
No  representative  of  any  self-governed  nation  will  dare  dis 
regard  it  by  attempting  any  such  covenants  of  selfishness 
and  compromise  as  were  entered  into  at  the  Congress  of 
Vienna.  The  thought  of  the  plain  people  here  and  every 
where  throughout  the  world,  the  people  who  enj  oy  no  privi 
lege  and  have  very  simple  and  unsophisticated  standards 
of  right  and  wrong,  is  the  air  all  governments  must  hence 
forth  breathe  if  they  would  live.  It  is  in  the  full  disclosing 
light  of  that  thought  that  all  policies  must  be  conceived  and 
executed  in  this  midday  hour  of  the  world's  life.  German 
rulers  have  been  able  to  upset  the  peace  of  the  world  only 
because  the  German  people  were  not  suffered  under  their 
tutelage  to  share  the  comradeship  of  the  other  peoples  of 
the  world  either  in  thought  or  in  purpose.  They  were 
allowed  to  have  no  opinion  of  their  own  which  might  be  set 
up  as  a  rule  of  conduct  for  those  who  exercised  authority 
over  them.  But  the  congress  that  concludes  this  war  will 
feel  the  full  strength  of  the  tides  that  run  now  in  the  hearts 
and  consciences  of  free  men  everywhere.  Its  conclusions, 
will  run  with  those  tides. 

All  these  things  have  been  true  from  the  very  beginning 
of  this  stupendous  war;  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
if  they  had  been  made  plain  at  the  very  outset  the  sympathy 
and  enthusiasm  of  the  Russian  people  might  have  been  once 
for  all  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  allies,  suspicion  and  dis 
trust  swept  away,  and  a  real  and  lasting  union  of  purpose 
effected.  Had  they  believed  these  things  at  the  very  mo 
ment  of  their  revolution,  and  had  they  been  confirmed  in 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

that  belief  since,  the  s.ad  reverses  which  have  recently 
marked  the  progress  of  their  affairs  toward  an  ordered 
and  stable  government  of  free  men  might  have  been  avoided. 
The  Russian  people  have  been  poisoned  by  the  very  same 
falsehoods  that  have  kept  the  German  people  in  the  dark, 
and  the  poison  has  been  administered  by  the  very  same 
hands.  The  only  possible  antidote  is  the  truth.  It  cannot 
be  uttered  too  plainly  or  too  often. 

From  every  point  of  view,  therefore,  it  has  seemed  to  be 
my  duty  to  speak  these  declarations  of  purpose,  to  add 
these  specific  interpretations  to  what  I  took  the  liberty  of 
saying  to  the  Senate  in  January.  Our  entrance  into  the 
war  has  not  altered  our  attitude  toward  the  settlement  that 
must  come  when  it  is  over.  When  I  said  in  January  that 
the  nations  of  the  world  were  entitled  not  only  to  free 
pathways  upon  the  sea  but  also  to  assured  and  unmolested 
access  to  those  pathways,  I  was  thinking,  and  I  am  think 
ing  now,  not  of  the  smaller  and  weaker  nations  alone,  which 
need  our  countenance  and  support,  but  also  of  the  great 
and  powerful  nations,  and  of  our  present  enemies  as  well 
as  our  present  associates  in  the  war.  I  was  thinking,  and 
am  thinking  now,  of  Austria  herself,  among  the  rest,  as 
well  as  of  Serbia  and  of  Poland.  Justice  and  equality  of 
right  can  be  had  only  at  a  great  price.  We  are  seeking 
permanent,  not  temporary,  foundations  for  the  peace  of 
the  world  and  must  seek  them  candidly  and  fearlessly.  As 
always,  the  right  will  prove  to  be  the  expedient. 

What  shall  we  do,  then,  to  push  this  great  war  of  free 
dom  and  justice  to  its  righteous  conclusion?  We  must  clear 
away  with  a  thorough  hand  all  impediments  to  success,  and 
we  must  make  every  adjustment  of  law  that  will  facilitate 
the  full  and  free  use  of  our  whole  capacity  and  force  as 
a  fighting  unit. 

One  very  embarrassing  obstacle  that  stands  in  our  way 
is  that  we  are  at  war  with  Germany,  but  not  with  her 
allies.  I  therefore  very  earnestly  recommend  that  the  Con- 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

gress  immediately  declare  the  United  States  in  a  state  of 
war  with  Austria-Hungary.  Does  it  seem  strange  to  you 
that  this  should  be  the  conclusion  of  the  argument  I  have 
just  addressed  to  you?  It  is  not.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  in 
evitable  logic  of  what  I  have  said.  Austria-Hungary  is 
for  the  time  being  not  her  own  mistress,  but  simply  the 
vassal  of  the  German  Government.  We  must  face  the 
facts  as  they  are  and  act  upon  them  without  sentiment  in 
this  stern  business.  The  Government  of  Austria-Hungary 
is  not  acting  upon  its  own  initiative  or  in  response  to  the 
wishes  and  feelings  of  its  own  peoples,  but  as  the  instru 
ment  of  another  nation.  We  must  meet  its  force  with  our 
own  and  regard  the  Central  Powers  as  but  one.  The  war 
can  be  successfully  conducted  in  no  other  way.  The  same 
logic  would  lead  also  to  a  declaration  of  war  against  Turkey 
and  Bulgaria.  They  also  are  the  tools  of  Germany.  But 
they  are  mere  tools,  and  do  not  yet  stand  in  the  direct  path 
of  our  necessary  action.  We  shall  go  wherever  the  neces 
sities  of  this  war  carry  us,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  we  should 
go  only  where  immediate  and  practical  considerations  lead 
us  and  not  heed  any  others. 

The  financial  and  military  measures  which  must  be 
adopted  will  suggest  themselves  as  the  war  and  its  under 
takings  develop,  but  I  will  take  the  liberty  of  proposing  to 
you  certain  other  acts  of  legislation  which  seem  to  me  to  be 
needed  for  the  support  of  the  war  and  for  the  release  of 
our  whole  force  and  energy. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  extend  in  certain  particulars  the 
legislation  of  the  last  session  with  regard  to  alien  enemies ; 
and  also  necessary,  I  believe,  to  creat  a  very  definite  and 
particular  control  over  the  entrance  and  departure  of  all 
persons  into  and  from  the  United  States. 

Legislation  should  be  enacted  denning  as  a  criminal 
offense  every  willful  violation  of  the  presidential  proclama 
tions  relating  to  alien  enemies  promulgated  under  section 
4067  of  the  Revised  Statutes  and  providing  appropriate 

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Presidential  Messages*  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

punishment;  and  women  aS  well  as  men  should  be  included 
under  the  terms  of  the  acts  placing  restraints  upon  alien 
enemies*  It  is  likely  that  as  time  goes  on  many  alien  ene 
mies  will  be  willing  to  be  fed  and  housed  at  the  expense  of 
the  Government  in  the  detention  camps,  and  it  would  be  the 
purpose  of  the  legislation  I  have  suggested  to  confine  of 
fenders  among  them  in  penitentiaries  and  other  similar 
institutions  where  they  could  be  made  to  work  as  other 
criminals  do. 

Recent  experience  has  convinced  me  that  the  Congress 
must  go  further  in  authorizing  the  Government  to  set  limits 
to  prices.  The  law  of  supply  and  demand,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
has  been  replaced  by  the  law  of  unrestrained  selfishness. 
While  we  have  eliminated  profiteering  in  several  branches 
of  industry  it  still  runs  impudently  rampant  in  others.  The 
farmers,  for  example,  complain  with  a  great  deal  of  justice 
that,  while  the  regulation  of  food  prices  restricts  their  in 
comes,  no  restraints  are  placed  upon  the  prices  of  most  of 
the  things  they  must  themselves  purchase;  and  similar  in 
equities  obtain  on  all  sides. 

It  is  imperatively  necessary  that  the  consideration  of 
the  full  use  of  the  water  power  of  the  country,  and  also 
the  consideration  of  the  systematic  and  yet  economical  de 
velopment  of  such  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  country 
as  are  still  under  the  control  of  the  Federal  Government, 
should  be  immediately  resumed  and  affirmatively  and  con 
structively  dealt  with  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  The 
pressing  need  of  such  legislation  is  daily  becoming  more 
obvious. 

The  legislation  proposed  at  the  last  session  with  regard 
to  regulated  combinations  among  our  exporters,  in  order 
to  provide  for  our  foreign  trade  a  more  effective  organiza 
tion  and  method  of  cooperation,  ought  by  all  means  to  be 
completed  at  this  session. 

And  I  beg  that  the  members  of  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives  will  permit  me  to  express  the  opinion  that  it  will 


Woodrow  Wilson 

be  impossible  to  deal  in  any  but  a  very  wasteful  and  ex 
travagant  fashion  with  the  enormous  appropriations  of  the 
public  moneys  which  must  continue  to  be  made,  if  the  war 
is  to  be  properly  sustained,  unless  the  House  will  consent 
to  return  to  its  former  practice  of  initiating  and  preparing 
all  appropriation  bills  through  a  single  committee,  in  or 
der  that  responsibility  may  be  centered,  expenditures  stand 
ardized  and  made  uniform,  and  waste  and  duplication  as 
much  as  possible  avoided. 

Additional  legislation  may  also  become  necessary  be 
fore  the  present  Congress  again  adjourns  in  order  to  effect 
the  most  efficient  co-ordination  and  operation  of  the  rail 
way  and  other  transportation  systems  of  the  country;  but 
to  that  I  shall,  if  circumstances  should  demand,  call  the 
attention  of  the  Congress  upon  another  occasion. 

If  I  have  overlooked  anything  that  ought  to  be  done  for 
the  more  effective  conduct  of  the  war,  your  own  counsels 
will  supply  the  omission.  What  I  am  perfectly  clear  about 
is  that  in  the  present  session  of  the  Congress  our  whole 
attention  and  energy  should  be  concentrated  on  the  vigor 
ous,  rapid,  and  successful  prosecution  of  the  great  task  of 
winning  the  war. 

We  can  do  this  with  all  the  greater  zeal  and  enthusiasm 
because  we  know  that  for  us  this  is  a  war  of  high  principle, 
debased  by  no  selfish  ambition  of  conquest  or  spoliation; 
because  we  know,  and  all  the  world  knows,  that  we  have 
been  forced  into  it  to  save  the  very  institutions  we  live  un 
der  from  corruption  and  destruction.  The  purposes  of  the 
Central  Powers  strike  straight  at  the  very  heart  of  every 
thing  we  believe  in ;  their  methods  of  warfare  outrage  every 
principle  of  humanity  and  of  knightly  honor ;  their  intrigue 
has  corrupted  the  very  thought  and  spirit  of  many  of  our 
people;  their  sinister  and  secret  diplomacy  has  sought  to 
take  our  very  territory  away  from  us  and  disrupt  the 
Union  of  the  States.  Our  safety  would  be  at  an  end,  our 
honor  forever  sullied  and  brought  into  contempt  were  we 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to  permit  their  triumph.  They  are  striking  at  the  very 
existence  of  democracy  and  liberty. 

It  is  because  it  is  for  us  a  war  of  high,  disinterested  pur 
pose,  in  which  all  the  free  peoples  of  the  world  are  banded 
together  for  the  vindication  of  right,  a  war  for  the  preser 
vation  of  our  nation  and  of  all  that  it  has  held  dear  of  prin 
ciple  and  of  purpose,  that  we  feel  ourselves  doubly  con 
strained  to  propose  for  its  outcome  only  that  which  is  right 
eous  and  of  irreproachable  intention,  for  our  foes  as  well 
as  for  our  friends.  The  cause  being  just  and  holy,  the  set 
tlement  must  be  of  like  motive  and  quality.  For  this  we 
can  fight,  but  for  nothing  less  noble  or  less  worthy  of  our 
traditions.  For  this  cause  we  entered  the  war  and  for  this 
cause  will  we  battle  until  the  last  gun  is  fired. 

I  have  spoken  plainly  because  this  seems  to  me  the  time 
when  it  is  most  necessary  to  speak  plainly,  in  order  that  all 
the  world  may  know  that  even  in  the  heat  and  ardor  of 
the  struggle  and  when  our  whole  thought  is  of  carrying 
the  war  through  to  its  end  we  have  not  forgotten  any  ideal 
or  principle  for  which  the  name  of  America  has  been  held 
in  honor. among  the  nations  and  for  which  it  has  been  our 
glory  to  contend  in  the  great  generations  that  went  before 
us.  A  supreme  moment  of  history  has  come.  The  eyes 
of  the  people  have  been  opened  and  they  see.  The  hand 
of  God  is  laid  upon  the  nations.  He  will  show  them  favor, 
I  devoutly  believe,  only  if  they  rise  to  the  clear  heights  of 
His  own  justice  and  mercy. 

[The  President's  recommendation  that  "the  Congress  immedi 
ately  declare  the  United  States  in  a  state  of  war  with  Austria- 
Hungary"  was  carried  out.  On  December  7  a  joint  resolution 
declaring  the  existence  of  a  state  of  war  was  adopted  in  both 
Senate  and  House,  with  only  one  vote  (Socialist)  in  opposition. 

The  reference  to  possible  legislation  to  effect  efficient  railroad 
co-ordination  and  operation  proved  interesting  in  the  light  of  sub 
sequent  events.  Three  weeks  later  the  President  concluded  that 
he  had  power  enough  to  take  the  most  radical  step.  On  December 
26  he  announced  that  every  railroad  system  would  be  taken  under 
Government  control.  On  January  4-  he  asked  Congress  for  legis 
lation  relating  to  financial  phases  of  the  transfer.] 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

PROCLAMATION   PLACING   RAILROADS   UNDER  GOVERNMENT 
CONTROL,  DECEMBER  26,  1917 

Whereas,  The  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  the  exer 
cise  of  the  constitutional  authority  vested  in  them,  by  joint 
resolution  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
bearing  date  April  6,  1917,  resolved: 

That  the  state  of  war  between  the  United  States  and  the  Im 
perial  German  Government  which  has  thus  been  thrust  upon  the 
United  States  is  hereby  formally  declared,  and  that  the  President 
be,  and  he  is  hereby,  authorized  and  directed  to  employ  the  entire 
naval  and  military  forces  of  the  United  States  and  the  resources 
of  the  Government  to  carry  on  war  against  the  Imperial  German 
Government,  and  to  bring  the  conflict  to  a  successful  termination 
all  of  the  resources  of  the  country  are  hereby  pledged  by  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States. 

And  by  joint  resolution,  bearing  date  Dec.  7,  1917,  re 
solved  : 

That  a  state  of  war  is  hereby  declared  to  exist  between  the 
United  States  of  America  and  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government,  and  that  the  President  be,  and  he  is 
hereby,  authorized  and  directed  to  employ  the  entire  naval  and 
military  forces  of  the  United  States  and  the  resources  of  the  Gov 
ernment  to  carry  on  war  against  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government,  and  to  bring  the  conflict  to  a  successful 
termination  all  the  resources  of  the  country  are  hereby  pledged 
by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

And,  whereas,  It  is  provided  by  Section  1  of  the  act  ap 
proved  Aug.  29,  1916,  entitled  "An  Act  Making  Appro 
priations  for  the  Support  of  the  Army  for  the  Fiscal 
Year  Ending  June  30,  1917,  and  for  Other  Purposes,"  as 
follows : 

The  President,  in  time  of  war,  is  empowered,  through  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  to  take  possession  and  assume  control  of  any  sys 
tem  or  systems  of  transportation,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  to 
utilize  the  same,  to  the  exclusion  as  far  as  may  be  necessary  of 
all  other  traffic  thereon,  for  the  transfer  or  transportation  of 
troops,  war  material  and  equipment,  or  for  such  other  purposes 
connected  with  the  emergency  as  may  be  needful  or  desirable. 

And,  whereas,  It  has  now  become  necessary  in  the  na 
tional  defense  to  take  possession  and  assume  control  of 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

certain  systems  of  transportation  and  to  utilize  the  same, 
to  the  exclusion  as  far  as  may  be  necessary  of  other  than 
war  traffic  thereon,  for  the  transportation  of  troops,  war 
material  and  equipment  therefor,  and  for  other  needful  and 
desirable  purposes  connected  with  the  prosecution  of  the 
war; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States,  under  and  by  virtue  of  the  powers  vested 
in  me  by  the  foregoing  resolutions  and  statute,  and  by  vir 
tue  of  all  other  powers  thereto  enabling,  do  hereby,  through 
Newton  D.  Baker,  Secretary  of  War,  take  possession  and 
assume  control  at  12  o'clock  noon  on  the  twenty-eighth  day 
of  December,  1917,  of  each  and  every  system  of  transpor 
tation  and  the  appurtenances  thereof  located  wholly  or  in 
part  within  the  boundaries  of  the  continental  United  States 
and  consisting  of  railroads,  and  owned  or  controlled  sys 
tems  of  coastwise  and  inland  transportation,  engaged  in 
general  transportation,  whether  operated  by  steam  or  by 
electric  power,  including  also  terminals,  terminal  companies 
and  terminal  associations,  sleeping  and  parlor  cars,  private 
cars  and  private  car  lines,  elevators,  warehouses,  telegraph 
and  telephone  lines,  and  all  other  equipment  and  appur 
tenances  commonly  used  upon  or  operated  as  a  part  of 
such  rail  or  combined  rail  and  water  systems  of  transpor 
tation — to  the  end  that  such  systems  of  transportation  be 
utilized  for  the  transfer  and  transportation  of  troops,  war 
material  and  equipment  to  the  exclusion  so  far  as  may  be 
necessary  of  all  other  traffic  thereon,  and  that  so  far  as 
such  exclusive  use  be  not  necessary  or  desirable,  such  sys 
tems  of  transportation  be  operated  and  utilized  in  the  per 
formance  of  such  other  services  as  the  national  interest  may 
require  and  of  the  usual  and  ordinary  business  and  duties 
of  common  carriers. 

It  is  hereby  directed  that  the  possession,  control,  opera 
tion,  and  utilization  of  such  transportation  systems  hereby 
by  me  undertaken  shall  be  exercised  by  and  through  Wil- 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

liarn  G.  McAdoo,  who  is  hereby  appointed  and  designated 
Director  General  of  Railroads.  Said  Director  may  per 
form  the  duties  imposed  upon  him  so  long,  and  to  such  ex 
tent,  as  he  shall  determine,  through  the  boards  of  Directors, 
receivers,  officers,  and  employes  of  said  systems  of  trans 
portation.  Until  and  except  so  far  as  said  Director  shall 
from  time  to  time  by  general  or  special  orders  otherwise 
provide,  the  boards  of  Directors,  receivers,  officers,  and 
employes  of  the  various  transportation  systems  shall  con 
tinue  the  operation  thereof  in  the  usual  and  ordinary  course 
of  the  business  of  common  carriers  in  the  names  of  their 
respective  companies. 

Until  and  except  so  far  as  said  Director  shall  from  time 
to  time  otherwise  by  general  or  special  orders  determine, 
such  systems  of  transportation  shall  remain  subject  to  all 
existing  statutes  and  orders  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  and  to  all  statutes  and  orders  of  regulating 
commissions  of  the  various  States  in  which  said  systems 
or  any  part  thereof  may  be  situated.  But  any  orders, 
general  or  special,  hereafter  made  by  said  Director  shall 
have  paramount  authority  and  be  obeyed  as  such. 

Nothing  herein  shall  be  construed  as  now  affecting  the 
possession,  operation,  and  control  of  street  electric  pas 
senger  railways,  including  railways  commonly  called  inter- 
urbans,  whether  such  railways  be  or  be  not  owned  or  con 
trolled  by  such  railroad  companies  or  systems.  By  sub 
sequent  order  and  proclamation,  if  and  when  it  shall  be 
found  necessary  or  desirable,  possession,  control,  or  opera 
tion  may  be  taken  of  all  or  any  part  of  such  street  railway 
systems,  including  subways  and  tunnels,  and  by  subsequent 
order  and  proclamation  possession,  control,  and  operation 
in  whole  or  in  part  may  also  be  relinquished  to  the  owners 
thereof  of  any  part  of  the  railroad  systems  or  rail  and 
water  systems,  possessions  and  control  of  which  are  hereby 
assumed. 

The  Director  shall,  as  soon  as  may  be  after  having  as- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

smned  such  possession  and  control,  enter  upon  negotiations 
with  the  several  companies  looking  to  agreements  for  just 
and  reasonable  compensation  for  the  possession,  use,  and 
control  of  the  respective  properties  on  the  basis  of  an 
annual  guaranteed  compensation  above  accruing  deprecia 
tion  and  the  maintenance  of  their  properties,  equivalent,  as 
nearly  as  may  be,  to  the  average  of  the  net  operating  in 
come  thereof  for  the  three-year  period  ending  June  30, 
1917,  the  results  of  such  negotiations  to  be  reported  to  me 
for  such  action  as  may  be  appropriate  and  lawful. 

But  nothing  herein  contained,  expressed  or  implied,  or 
hereafter  done  or  suffered  hereunder  shall  be  deemed  in 
any  way  to  impair  the  rights  of  the  stockholders,  bondhold 
ers,  creditors,  and  other  persons  having  interests  in  said 
systems  of  transportation  or  in  the  profits  thereof,  to  re 
ceive  just  and  adequate  compensation  for  the  use  and  con 
trol  and  operation  of  their  property  hereby  assumed. 

Regular  dividends  hitherto  declared,  and  maturing  in 
terest  upon  bonds,  debentures,  and  other  obligations,  may 
be  paid  in  due  course;  and  such  regular  dividends  and  in 
terest  may  continue  to  be  paid  until  and  unless  the  said 
Director  shall  from  time  to  time  otherwise  by  general  or 
special  orders  determine.  And,  subject  to  the  approval 
of  the  Director,  the  various  carriers  may  agree  upon  and 
arrange  for  the  renewal  and  extension  of  maturing  obliga 
tions. 

Except  with  the  prior  written  assent  of  said  Director,  no 
attachment  by  mesne  process  or  on  execution  shall  be  levied 
on  or  against  any  of  the  property  used  by  any  of  said  trans 
portation  systems  in  the  conduct  of  their  business  as  com 
mon  carriers ;  but  suits  may  be  brought  by  and  against  said 
carriers  and  judgments  rendered  as  hitherto  until  and  ex 
cept  so  far  as  said  Director  may,  by  general  or  special 
orders,  otherwise  determine. 

From  and  after  12  o'clock  on  said  twenty-eighth  day  of 
December,  1917,  all  transportation  systems  included  in 

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Woodrow    Wilson 

this  order  and  proclamation  shall  conclusively  be  deemed 
within  the  possession  of  said  Director,  without  further  act 
or  notice.  But  for  the  purposes  of  accounting  said  posses 
sion  and  control  shall  date  from  12  o'clock  midnight  on 
Dec.  31,  1917. 

IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  by  the  President,  through  Newton  D.  Baker,  Secretary 
of  War,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  this  26th  day  of  December, 
in  the  year  of  Our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen, 
and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and 
forty-second. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 
By  the  President: 

ROBERT  LANSING,  Secretary  of  State. 
NEWTON  D.  BAKER,  Secretary  of  War. 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS,  ON  GOVERNMENT 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  RAILROADS 

(Delivered   in   Joint   Session,   January   4,   1918) 
Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

I  have  asked  the  privilege  of  addressing  you  in  order  to 
report  to  you  that  on  the  28th  of  December  last,  during  the 
recess  of  the  Congress,  acting  through  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  under  the  authority  conferred  upon  me  by  the  act  of 
Congress  approved  August  29,  1916,  I  took  possession  and 
assumed  control  of  the  railway  lines  of  the  country  and  the 
systems  of  water  transportation  under  their  control.  This 
step  seemed  to  be  imperatively  necessary  in  the  interest  of 
the  public  welfare,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  tasks  of 
war  with  which  we  are  now  dealing.  As  our  own  experience 
develops  difficulties  and  makes  it  clear  what  they  are,  I 
have  deemed  it  my  duty  to  remove  those  difficulties  wher 
ever  I  have  the  legal  power  to  do  so. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

To  assume  control  of  the  vast  railway  systems  of  the 
country  is,  I  realize,  a  very  great  responsibility,  but  to 
fail  to  do  so  in  the  existing  circumstances  would  have  been 
a  much  greater.  I  assumed  the  less  responsibility  rather 
than  the  weightier. 

I  am  sure  that  I  am  speaking  the  mind  of  all  thoughtful 
Americans  when  I  say  that  it  is  our  duty  as  the  represen 
tatives  of  the  nation  to  do  everything  that  it  is  necessary 
to  do  to  secure  the  complete  mobilization  of  the  whole  re 
sources  of  America  by  as  rapid  and  effective  means  as 
can  be  found.  Transportation  supplies  all  the  arteries  of 
mobilization.  Unless  it  be  under  a  single  and  unified 
direction,  the  whole  process  of  the  nation's  action  is 
embarrassed. 

It  was  in  the  true  spirit  of  America,  and  it  was  right, 
that  we  should  first  try  to  effect  the  necessary  unification 
under  the  voluntary  action  of  those  who  were  in  charge  of 
the  great  railway  properties;  and  we  did  try  it.  The 
directors  of  the  railways  responded  to  the  need  promptly 
and  generously.  The  group  of  railway  executives  who 
were  charged  with  the  task  of  actual  coordination  and 
general  direction  performed  their  difficult  duties  with  pa 
triotic  zeal  and  marked  ability,  as  was  to  have  been  ex 
pected,  and  did,  I  believe,  everything  that  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  do  in  the  circumstances.  If  I  have  taken  the 
task  out  of  their  hands,  it  has  not  been  because  of  any 
dereliction  or  failure  on  their  part  but  only  because  there 
were  some  things  which  the  Government  can  do  and  pri 
vate  management  cannot.  We  shall  continue  to  value  most 
highly  the  advice  and  assistance  of  these  gentlemen  and  I 
am  sure  we  shall  not  find  them  withholding  it. 

It  had  become  unmistakably  plain  that  only  under  Gov 
ernment  administration  can  the  entire  equipment  of  the 
several  systems  of  transportation  be  fully  and  unreservedly 
thrown  into  a  common  service  without  injurious  discrimi 
nation  against  particular  properties.  Only  under  Govern- 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

ment  administration  can  an  absolutely  unrestricted  and  un 
embarrassed  common*  use  be  made  of  all  tracks,  terminals, 
terminal  facilities  and  equipment  of  every  kind.  Only 
under  that  authority  can  new  terminals  be  constructed  and 
developed  without  regard  to  the  requirements  or  limitations 
of  particular  roads.  But  under  Government  administration 
all  these  things  will  be  possible — not  instantly,  but  as  fast 
as  practical  difficulties,  which  cannot  be  merely  conjured 
away,  give  way  before  the  new  management. 

The  common  administration  will  be  carried  out  with  as 
little  disturbance  of  the  present  operating  organizations 
and  personnel  of  the  railways  as  possible.  Nothing  will  be 
altered  or  disturbed  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  disturb. 
We  are  serving  the  public  interest  and  safeguarding  the 
public  safety,  but  we  are  also  regardful  of  the  interest  of 
those  by  whom  these  great  properties  are  owned  and  glad 
to  avail  ourselves  of  the  experience  and  trained  ability  of 
those  who  have  been  managing  them. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  transportation  of  troops  and  of 
war  materials,  of  food  and  of  fuel,  and  of  everything  that 
is  necessary  for  the  full  mobilization  of  the  energies  and 
resources  of  the  country,  should  be  first  considered,  but  it 
is  clearly  in  the  public  interest  also  that  the  ordinary  activ 
ities  and  the  normal  industrial  and  commercial  life  of  the 
country  should  be  interfered  with  and  dislocated  as  little 
as  possible,  and  the  public  may  rest  assured  that  the  in 
terest  and  convenience  of  the  private  shipper  will  be  as 
carefully  served  and  safeguarded  as  it  is  possible  to  serve 
and  safeguard  it  in  the  present  extraordinary  circum 
stances. 

While  the  present  authority  of  the  Executive  suffices  for 
all  purposes  of  administration,  and  while  of  course  all 
private  interests  must  for  the  present  give  way  to  the 
public  necessity,  it  is,  I  am  sure  you  will  agree  with  me, 
right  and  necessary  that  the  owners  and  creditors  of  the 
railways,  the  holders  of  their  stocks  and  bonds,  should 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

receive  from  the  Government  an  unqualified  guarantee  that 
their  properties  will  be  maintained  throughout  the  period 
of  Federal  control  in  as  good  repair  and  as  complete  equip 
ment  as  at  present,  and  that  the  several  roads  will  receive 
under  Federal  management  such  compensation  as  is  equi 
table  and  just  alike  to  their  owners  and  to  the  general  pub 
lic.  I  would  suggest  the  average  net  railway  operating 
income  of  the  three  years  ending  June  30,  1917.  I  ear 
nestly  recommend  that  these  guarantees  be  given  by  appro 
priate  legislation,  and  given  as  promptly  as  circumstances 
permit. 

I  need  not  point  out  the  essential  justice  of  such  guaran 
tees  and  their  great  influence  and  significance  as  elements 
in  the  present  financial  and  industrial  situation  of  the  coun 
try.  Indeed,  one  of  the  strong  arguments  for  assuming 
control  of  the  railroads  at  this  time  is  the  financial  argu 
ment. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  values  of  railway  securities 
should  be  justly  and  fairly  protected  and  that  the  large 
financial  operations  every  year  necessary  in  connection 
with  the  maintenance,  operation  and  development  of  the 
roads  should,  during  the  period  of  the  war,  be  wisely  re 
lated  to  the  financial  operations  of  the  Government. 

Our  first  duty  is,  of  course,  to  conserve  the  common  in 
terest  and  the  common  safety  and  to  make  certain  that 
nothing  stands  in  the  way  of  the  successful  prosecution  of 
the  great  war  for  liberty  and  justice,  but  it  is  also  an  obli 
gation  of  public  conscience  and  of  public  honor  that  the  pri 
vate  interests  we  disturb  should  be  kept  safe  from  unjust 
injury,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  the  Govern 
ment  itself  that  all  great  financial  operations  should  be 
stabilized  and  co-ordinated  with  the  financial  operations  of 
the  Government. 

No  borrowing  should  run  athwart  the  borrowings  of  the 
Federal  Treasury,  and  no  fundamental  industrial  values 
should  anywhere  be  unnecessarily  impaired. 

462 


Woodrow  Wilson 

In  the  hands  of  many  thousands  of  small  investors  in  the 
country,  as  well  as  in  national  banks,  in  insurance  compa 
nies,  in  savings  banks,  in  trust  companies,  in  financial  agen 
cies  of  every  kind,  railway  securities,  the  sum  total  of  which 
runs  up  to  some  ten  or  eleven  thousand  millions,  constitute 
a  vital  part  of  the  structure  of  credit,  and  the  unques- 
tidned  solidity  of  that  structure  must  be  maintained. 

The  Secretary  of  War  and  I  easily  agreed  that,  in  view 
of  the  many  complex  interests  which  must  be  safeguarded 
and  harmonized,  as  well  as  because  of  his  exceptional  ex 
perience  and  ability  in  this  new  field  of  Governmental  ac 
tion,  the  Hon.  William  G.  McAdoo  was  the  right  man  to 
assume  direct  administrative  control  of  this  new  executive 
task.  At  our  request,  he  consented  to  assume  the  author 
ity  and  duties  of  organizer  and  Director  General  of  the  new 
Railway  Administration.  He  has  assumed  those  duties  and 
his  work  is  in  active  progress. 

It  is  probably  too  much  to  expect  that  even  under  the 
unified  railway  administration  which  will  now  be  possible 
sufficient  economies  can  be  effected  in  the  operation  of  the 
railways  to  make  it  possible  to  add  to  their  equipment  and 
extend  their  operative  facilities  as  much  as  the  present 
extraordinary  demands  upon  their  use  will  render  desirable 
without  resorting  to  the  National  Treasury  for  the  funds. 
If  it  is  not  possible,  it  will,  of  course,  be  necessary  to  re 
sort  to  the  Congress  for  grants  of  money  for  that  purpose. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  advise  with  your  com 
mittees  with  regard  to  this  very  practical  aspect  of  the 
matter. 

For  the  present,  I  suggest  only  the  guarantees  I  have 
indicated  and  such  appropriations  as  are  necessary  at  the 
outset  of  this  task.  I  take  the  liberty  of  expressing  the 
hope  that  the  Congress  may  grant  these  promptly  and  un 
grudgingly.  We  are  dealing  with  great  matters  and  will, 
I  am  sure,  deal  with  them  greatly. 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS,  STATING  THE  WAR  AIMS 
AND  PEACE  TERMS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

(Delivered  in   Joint   Session,  January   8,   1918) 
Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

Once  more,  as  repeatedly  before,  the  spokesmen  of  the 
Central  Empires  have  indicated  their  desire  to  discuss 
the  objects  of  the  war  and  the  possible  basis  of  a  general 
peace.  Parleys  have  been  in  progress  at  Brest-Litovsk 
between  Russian  representatives  and  representatives  of  the 
Central  Powers  to  which  the  attention  of  all  the  belliger 
ents  has  been  invited  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining 
whether  it  may  be  possible  to  extend  these  parleys  into 
a  general  conference  with  regard  to  terms  of  peace  and 
settlement. 

The  Russian  representatives  presented  not  only  a  per 
fectly  definite  statement  of  the  principles  upon  which  they 
would  be  willing  to  conclude  peace  but  also  an  equally 
definite  program  of  the  concrete  application  of  those  prin 
ciples.  The  representatives  of  the  Central  Powers,  on 
their  part,  presented  an  outline  of  settlement  which,  if 
much  less  definite,  seemed  susceptible  of  liberal  interpre 
tation  until  their  specific  program  of  practical  terms  was 
added.  That  program  proposed  no  concessions  at  all 
either  to  the  sovereignty  of  Russia  or  to  the  preferences 
of  the  populations  with  whose  fortunes  it  dealt,  but  meant, 
in  a  word,  that  the  Central  Empires  were  to  keep  every 
foot  of  territory  their  armed  forces  had  occupied — every 
province,  every  city,  every  point  of  vantage- — as  a  perma 
nent  addition  to  their  territories  and  their  power. 

It  is  a  reasonable  conjecture  that  the  general  principles 
of  settlement  which  they  at  first  suggested  originated  with 
the  more  liberal  statesmen  of  Germany  and  Austria,  the 
men  who  have  begun  to  feel  the  force  of  their  own  people's 
thought  and  purpose,  while  the  concrete  terms  of  actual 
settlement  came  from  the  military  leaders  who  have  no 


Woodrow  Wilson 

thought  but  to  keep  what  they  have  got.  The  negotiations 
have  been  broken  off.  The  Russian  representatives  were 
sincere  and  in  earnest.  They  cannot  entertain  such  pro 
posals  of  conquest  and  domination. 

The  whole  incident  is  full  of  significance.  It  is  also  full 
of  perplexity.  With  whom  are  the  Russian  representa 
tives  dealing?  For  whom  are  the  representatives  of  the 
Central  Empires  speaking?  Are  they  speaking  for  the 
majorities  of  their  respective  parliaments  or  for  the  minor 
ity  parties,  that  military  and  imperialistic  minority  which 
has  so  far  dominated  their  whole  policy  and  controlled  the 
affairs  of  Turkey  and  of  the  Balkan  states  which  have 
felt  obliged  to  become  their  associates  in  this  war? 

The  Russian  representatives  have  insisted,  very  justly, 
very  wisely,  and  in  the  true  spirit  of  modern  democracy, 
that  the  conferences  they  have  been  holding  with  the  Teu 
tonic  and  Turkish  statesmen  should  be  held  within  open, 
not  closed,  doors,  and  all  the  world  has  been  audience,  as 
was  desired.  To  whom  have  we  been  listening,  then?  To 
those  who  speak  the  spirit  and  intention  of  the  resolutions 
of  the  German  Reichstag  of  the  9th  of  July  last,  the  spirit 
and  intention  of  the  Liberal  leaders  and  parties  of  Ger 
many,  or  to  those  who  resist  and  defy  that  spirit  and  in 
tention  and  insist  upon  conquest  and  subjugation?  Or 
are  we  listening,  in  fact,  to  both,  unreconciled  and  in  open 
and  hopeless  contradiction?  These  are  very  serious  and 
pregnant  questions.  Upon  the  answer  to  them  depends 
the  peace  of  the  world. 

But,  whatever  the  results  of  the  parleys  at  Brest-Litovsk, 
whatever  the  confusions  of  counsel  and  of  purpose  in  the 
utterances  of  the  spokesmen  of  the  Central  Empires,  they 
have  again  attempted  to  acquaint  the  world  with  their  ob 
jects  in  the  war  and  have  again  challenged  their  adversa 
ries  to  say  what  their  objects  are  and  what  sort  of  settle 
ment  they  would  deem  just  and  satisfactory.  There  is  no 
good  reason  why  that  challenge  should  not  be  responded 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

to,  and  responded  to  with  the  utmost  candor.  We  did  not 
wait  for  it.  Not  once,  but  again  and  again,  we  have  laid 
our  whole  thought  and  purpose  before  the  world,  not  in 
general  terms  only,  but  each  time  with  sufficient  definition 
to  make  it  clear  what  sort  of  definite  terms  of  settlement 
must  necessarily  spring  out  of  them.  Within  the  last  week 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  has  spoken  with  admirable  candor  and 
in  admirable  spirit  for  the  people  and  Government  of 
Great  Britain. 

There  is  no  confusion  of  counsel  among  the  adversaries 
of  the  Central  Powers,  no  uncertainty  of  principle,  no 
vagueness  of  detail.  The  only  secrecy  of  counsel,  the  only 
lack  of  fearless  frankness,  the  only  failure  to  make  definite 
statement  of  the  objects  of  the  war,  lies  with  Germany 
and  her  allies.  The  issues  of  life  and  death  hang  upon 
these  definitions.  No  statesman  who  has  the  least  con 
ception  of  his  responsibility  ought  for  a  moment  to  permit 
himself  to  continue  this  tragical  and  appalling  outpouring 
of  blood  and  treasure  unless  he  is  sure  beyond  a  peradven- 
ture  that  the  objects  of  the  vital  sacrifice  are  part  and 
parcel  of  the  very  life  of  Society  and  that  the  people  for 
whom  he  speaks  think  them  right  and  imperative  as  he  does. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  voice  calling  for  these  definitions 
of  principle  and  of  purpose  which  is,  it  seems  to  me,  more 
thrilling  and  more  compelling  than  any  of  the  many  mov 
ing  voices  with  which  the  troubled  air  of  the  world  is  filled. 
It  is  the  voice  of  the  Russian  people.  They  are  prostrate 
and  all  but  helpless,  it  would  seem,  before  the  grim  power 
of  Germany,  which  has  hitherto  known  no  relenting  and 
no  pity.  Their  power,  apparently,  is  shattered.  And  yet 
their  soul  is  not  subservient.  They  will  not  yield  either 
in  principle  or  in  action.  Their  conception  of  what  is 
right,  of  what  is  humane  and  honorable  for  them  to  accept, 
has  been  stated  with  a  frankness,  a  largeness  of  view,  a 
generosity  of  spirit,  arid  a  universal  human  sympathy  which 
must  challenge  the  admiration  of  every  friend  of  mankind; 


Woodrow  Wilson 

and  they  have  refused  to  compound  their  ideals  or  desert 
others  that  they  themselves  may  be  safe. 

They  call  to  us  to  say  what  it  is  that  we  desire,  in  what, 
if  in  anything,  our  purpose  and  our  spirit  differ  from  theirs ; 
and  I  believe  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  would 
wish  me  to  respond,  with  utter  simplicity  and  frankness. 
Whether  their  present  leaders  believe  it  or  not,  it  is  our 
heartfelt  desire  and  hope  that  some  way  may  be  opened 
whereby  we  may  be  privileged  to  assist  the  people  of  Rus 
sia  to  attain  their  utmost  hope  of  liberty  and  ordered  peace. 

It  will  be  our  wish  and  purpose  that  the  processes  of 
peace,  when  they  are  begun,  shall  be  absolutely  open  and 
that  they  shall  involve  and  permit  henceforth  no  secret 
understandings  of  any  kind.  The  day  of  conquest  and 
aggrandizement  is  gone  by;  so  is  also  the  day  of  secret 
covenants  entered  into  in  the  interest  of  particular  govern 
ments  and  likely  at  some  unlooked-for  moment  to  upset  the 
peace  of  the  world.  It  is  this  happy  fact,  now  clear  to  the 
view  of  every  public  man  whose  thoughts  do  not  still  linger 
in  an  age  that  is  dead  and  gone,  which  makes  it  possible 
for  every  nation  whose  purposes  are  consistent  with  jus 
tice  and  the  peace  of  the  world  to  avow  now  or  at  any 
other  time  the  objects  it  has  in  view. 

We  entered  this  war  because  violations  of  right  had  oc 
curred  which  touched  us  to  the  quick  and  made  the  life  of 
our  own  people  impossible  unless  they  were  corrected  and 
the  world  secure  once  for  all  against  their  recurrence. 

What  we  demand  in  this  war,  therefore,  is  nothing  pecul 
iar  to  ourselves.  It  is  that  the  world  be  made  fit  and  safe 
to  live  in;  and  particularly  that  it  be  made  safe  for  every 
peace-loving  nation  which,  like  our  own,  wishes  to  live 
its  own  life,  determine  its  own  institutions,  be  assured  of 
justice  and  fair  dealing  by  the  other  peoples  of  the  world 
as  against  force  and  selfish  aggression. 

All  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  in  effect  partners  in  this 
interest,  and  for  our  own  part  we  see  very  clearly  that 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

unless  justice  be  done  to  others  it  will  not  be  done  to  us. 
The  program  of  the  world's  peace,  therefore,  is  our  pro 
gram;  and  that  program,  the  only  possible  program,  as  we 
see  it,  is  this: 

1.  Open  covenants  of  peace,  openly  arrived  at, 
after  which  there  shall  be  no  private  international 
understandings  of  any  kind  but  diplomacy  shall 
proceed  always  frankly  and  in  the  public  view. 

2.  Absolute    freedom    of   navigation    upon    the 
seas,  outside  territorial  waters,  alike  in  peace  and 
in  war,  except  as  the  seas  may  be  closed  in  whole 
or  in  part  by  international  action  for  the  enforce 
ment  of  international  covenants. 

3.  The  removal,  so  far  as  possible,  of  all  eco 
nomic  barriers  and  the  establishment  of  an  equal 
ity    of   trade    conditions    among    all    the    nations 
consenting  to  the  peace  and  associating  themselves 
for  its  maintenance. 

4.  Adequate  guarantees  given  and  taken  that 
national  armaments  will  be  reduced  to  the  lowest 
points  consistent  with  domestic  safety. 

5.  A  free,  open-minded,  and  absolutely  impar 
tial  adjustment  of  all  colonial  claims,  based  upon 
a  strict  observance  of  the  principle  that  in  deter 
mining  all  such  questions  of  sovereignty  the  in 
terests   of  the  populations   concerned  must  have 
equal  weight  with  the  equitable  claims  of  the  gov 
ernment  whose  title  is  to  be  determined. 

6.  The  evacuation  of  all  Russian  territory  and 
such  a  settlement  of  all  questions  affecting  Russia 
as  will  secure  the  best  and  freest  cooperation  of 
the  other  nations  of  the  world  in  obtaining  for 
her  an  unhampered  and  unembarrassed  opportu 
nity   for   the    independent   determination   of   her 

468 


Waodrow  Wilson 

own  political  development  and  national  policy 
and  assure  her  of  a  sincere  welcome  into  the 
society  of  free  nations  under  institutions  of  her 
own  choosing;  and,  more  than  a  welcome,  assist 
ance  also  of  every  kind  that  she  may  need  and  may 
herself  desire.  The  treatment  accorded  Russia 
by  her  sister  nations  in  the  months  to  come  will 
be  the  acid  test  of  their  good  will,  of  their  com 
prehension  of  her  needs  as  distinguished  from 
their  own  interests,  and  of  their  intelligent  and 
unselfish  sympathy. 

7.  Belgium,  the  whole  world  will  agree,  must 
be  evacuated  and  restored,  without  any  attempt 
to  limit  the  sovereignty  which  she  enjoys  in  com 
mon  with  all  other  free  nations.     No  other  single 
act  will  serve  as  this  will  serve  to  restore  confi 
dence  among  the  nations  in  the  laws  which  they 
have  themselves  set  and  determined  for  the  gov 
ernment    of    their    relations    with    one    another. 
Without  this  healing  act  the  whole  structure  and 
validity  of  international  law  is  forever  impaired. 

8.  All   French   territory   shpulcMbe    freed   and 
the  invaded  portions  restored,  and  the  wrong  done 
to  France  by  Prussia  in   1871   in  the  matter  of 
Alsace-Lorraine,  which   has   unsettled  the   peace 
of  the   world   for   nearly   fifty  years,   should   be 
righted,  in  order  that  peace  may  once  more  be 
made  secure  in  the  interest  of  all. 

9.  A   readjustment   of   the    frontiers   of    Italy 
should  be  effected  along  clearly  recognizable  lines 
of  nationality. 

10.  The    peoples    of   Austria-Hungary,   whose 
place   among  the   nations   we   wish  to   see   safe 
guarded    and    assured,    should    be    accorded    the 
freest  opportunity  of  autonomous  development. 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

11.  Rumania,  Serbia,  and  Montenegro  should 
be  evacuated ;  occupied  territories  restored ;  Serbia 
accorded  free  and  secure  access  to  the  sea;  and 
the  relations  of  the  several  Balkan  states  to  one 
another  determined  by  friendly  counsel  along 
historically  established  lines  of  allegiance  and 
nationality;  and  international  guarantees  of  the 
political  and  economic  independence  and  territo 
rial  integrity  of  the  several  Balkan  states  should 
be  entered  into. 

12.  The  Turkish  portions  of  the  present  Otto 
man  Empire   should  be  assured  a   secure   sover 
eignty,  but  the  other  nationalities  which  are  now 
under    Turkish   rule    should   be    assured    an   un 
doubted  security  of  life  and  an  absolutely  unmo 
lested   opportunity    of    autonomous    development, 
and    the    Dardanelles    should    be    permanently 
opened  as  a  free  passage  to  the  ships  and  com 
merce  of  all  nations  under  international  guaran 
tees. 

13.  An    independent    Polish    state    should    be 
erected  which   should  include  the  territories   in 
habited  by  indisputably  Polish  populations,  which 
should  be  assured  a  free  and  secure  access  to  the 
sea,  and  whose  political  and  economic  independ 
ence  and  territorial  integrity  should  be  guaran 
teed  by  international  covenant. 

14.  A  general  association  of  nations  must  be 
formed  under  specific  covenants  for  the  purpose 
of  affording  mutual  guarantees  of  political  inde 
pendence   and  territorial   integrity   to   great   and 
small  states  alike. 

In  regard  to  these  essential  rectifications  of  wrong  and 
assertions  of  right  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  intimate  partners 
of  all  the  governments  and  peoples  associated  together 

470 


Woodrow  Wilson 

against  the  imperialists.  We  cannot  be  separated  in  inter 
est  or  divided  in  purpose.  We  stand  together  until  the  end. 

For  such  arrangements  and  covenants  we  are  willing  to 
fight  and  to  continue  to  fight  until  they  are  achieved;  but 
only  because  we  wish  the  right  to  prevail  and  desire  a  just 
and  stable  peace  such  as  can  be  secured  only  by  removing 
the  chief  provocations  to  war,  which  this  program  does 
remove. 

We  have  no  jealousy  of  German  greatness,  and  there  is 
nothing  in  this  program  that  impairs  it.  We  grudge  her 
no  achievement  or  distinction  of  learning  or  of  pacific 
enterprise  such  as  have  made  her  record  very  bright  and 
7<ry  enviable.  We  do  not  wish  to  injure  her  or  to  block 
in  any  way  her  legitimate  influence  or  power.  We  do  not 
wish  to  fight  her  either  with  arms  or  with  hostile  arrange 
ments  of  trade  if  she  is  willing  to  associate  herself  with  us 
and  the  other  peace-loving  nations  of  the  world  in  cove 
nants  of  justice  and  law  and  fair  dealing. 

We  wish  her  only  to  accept  a  place  of  equality  among 
the  peoples  of  the  world, — the  new  world  in  which  we  now 
live, — instead  of  a  place  of  mastery. 

Neither  do  we  presume  to  suggest  to  her  any  alteration 
or  modification  of  her  institutions.  But  it  is  necessary,  we 
must  frankly  say,  and  necessary  as  a  preliminary  to  any 
intelligent  dealings  with  her  on  our  part,  that  we  should 
know  whom  her  spokesmen  speak  for  when  they  speak  to 
us,  whether  for  the  Reichstag  majority  or  for  the  military 
party  and  the  men  whose  creed  is  imperial  domination. 

We  have  spoken  now,  surely,  in  terms  too  concrete  to 
admit  of  any  further  doubt  or  question.  An  evident  prin 
ciple  runs  through  the  whole  program  I  have  outlined.  It 
is  the  principle  of  justice  to  all  peoples  and  nationalities, 
and  their  right  to  live  on  equal  terms  of  liberty  and  safety 
with  one  another,  whether  they  be  strong  or  weak. 

Unless  this  principle  be  made  its  foundation  no  part 
of  the  structure  of  international  justice  can  stand.  The 

471 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

people  of  the  United  States  could  act  upon  no  other  prin 
ciple;  and  to  the  vindication  of  this  principle  they  are 
ready  to  devote  their  lives,  their  honor,  and  everything 
that  they  possess.  The  moral  climax  of  this  the  culmi 
nating  and  final  war  for  human  liberty  has  come,  and  they 
are  ready  to  put  their  own  strength,  their  own  highest  pur 
pose,  their  own  integrity  and  devotion  to  the  test. 


PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    ADDRESS    TO    CONGRESS,    ANALYZING 
GERMAN    AND    AUSTRIAN    PEACE    UTTERANCES 

(Delivered  in  Joint  Session,  February  11,  1918) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress:  On  the  eighth  of  January  I 
had  the  honor  of  addressing  you  on  the  objects  of  the  war 
as  our  people  conceive  them.  The  Prime  Minister  of  Great 
Britain  had  spoken  in  similar  terms  on  the  fifth  of  January. 
To  these  addresses  the  German  Chancellor  replied  on  the 
tweny-fourth  and  Count  Czernin,  for  Austria,  on  the  same 
day.  It  is  gratifying  to  have  our  desire  so  promptly  realized 
that  all  exchanges  of  view  on  this  great  matter  should  be 
made  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  world. 

Count  Czernin's  reply,  which  is  directed  chiefly  to  my 
own  address  of  the  eighth  of  January,  is  uttered  in  a  very 
friendly  tone.  He  finds  in  my  statement  a  sufficiently  en 
couraging  approach  to  the  views  of  his  own  Government  to 
justify  him  in  believing  that  it  furnishes  a  basis  for  a  more 
detailed  discussion  of  purposes  by  the  two  Governments. 
He  is  represented  to  have  intimated  that  the  views  he  was 
expressing  had  been  communicated  to  me  beforehand  and 
that  I  was  aware  of  them  at  the  time  he  was  uttering  them ; 
but  in  this  I  am  sure  he  was  misunderstood.  I  had  re 
ceived  no  intimation  of  what  he  intended  to  say.  There 
was,  of  course,  no  reason  why  he  should  communicate  pri- 


Woodrow  Wilson 

vately  with  me.     I  am  quite  content  to  be  one  of  his  public 
audience. 

Count  von  Hertling's  reply  is,  I  must  say,  very  vague 
and  very  confusing.  It  is  full  of  equivocal  phrases  and 
leads  it  is  not  clear  where.  But  it  is  certainly  in  a  very 
different  tone  from  that  of  Count  Czernin,  and  apparently 
of  an  opposite  purpose.  It  confirms,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
rather  than  removes,  the  unfortunate  impression  made  by 
what  we  had  learned  of  the  conferences  at  Brest-Litovsk. 
His  discussion  and  acceptance  of  our  general  principles 
lead  him  to  no  practical  conclusions.  He  refuses  to  apply 
them  to  the  substantive  items  which  must  constitute  the 
body  of  any  final  settlement.  He  is  jealous  of  international 
action  and  of  international  counsel.  He  accepts,  he  says, 
the  principle  of  public  diplomacy,  but  he  appears  to  insist 
that  it  be  confined,  at  any  rate  in  this  case,  to  generalities 
and  that  the  several  particular  questions  of  territory  and 
sovereignty,  the  several  questions  upon  whose  settlement 
must  depend  the  acceptance  of  peace  by  the  twenty-three 
states  now  engaged  in  the  war,  must  be  discussed  and  set 
tled,  not  in  general  council,  but  severally  by  the  nations 
most  immediately  concerned  by  interest  or  neighborhood. 
He  agrees  that  the  seas  should  be  free,  but  looks  askance  at 
any  limitation  to  that  freedom  by  international  action  in 
the  interest  of  the  common  order.  He  would  without  re 
serve  be  glad  to  see  economic  barriers  removed  between 
nation  and  nation,  for  that  could  in  no  way  impede  the  am 
bitions  of  the  military  party  with  whom  he  seems  con 
strained  to  keep  on  terms.  Neither  does  he  raise  objection 
to  a  limitation  of  armaments.  That  matter  will  be  settled 
of  itself,  he  thinks,  by  the  economic  conditions  which  must 
follow  the  war.  But  the  German  colonies,  he  demands, 
must  be  returned  without  debate.  He  will  discuss  with  no 
one  but  the  representatives  of  Russia  what  disposition  shall 
be  made  of  the  people  and  the  lands  of  the  Baltic  provinces ; 
with  no  one  but  the  Government  of  France  the  "conditions" 

473 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

under  which  French  territory  shall  be  evacuated;  and  only 
with  Austria  what  shall  be  done  with  Poland.  In  the  de 
termination  of  all  questions  affecting  the  Balkan  states  he 
defers,  as  I  understand  him,  to  Austria  and  Turkey;  and 
with  regard  to  the  agreements  to  be  entered  into  concerning 
the  non-Turkish  peoples  of  the  present  Ottoman  Empire, 
to  the  Turkish  authorities  themselves.  After  a  settlement 
all  around,  effected  in  this  fashion,  by  individual  barter 
and  concession,  he  would  have  no  objection,  if  I  correctly 
interpret  his  statement,  to  a  league  of  nations  which  would 
undertake  to  hold  the  new  balance  of  power  steady  against 
external  disturbance. 

It  must  be  evident  to  everyone  who  understands  what 
this  war  has  wrought  in  the  opinion  and  temper  of  the 
world  that  no  general  peace,  no  peace  worth  the  infinite 
sacrifices  of  these  years  of  tragical  suffering,  can  possibly 
be  arrived  at  in  any  such  fashion.  The  method  the  Ger 
man  Chancellor  proposes  is  the  method  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna.  We  cannot  and  will  not  return  to  that.  What  is 
at  stake  now  is  the  peace  of  the  world.  What  we  are 
striving  for  is  a  new  international  order  based  upon  broad 
and  universal  principles  of  right  and  justice, — no  mere 
peace  of  shreds  and  patches.  Is  it  possible  that  Count  von 
Hertling  does  not  see  that,  does  not  grasp  it,  is  in  fact 
living  in  his  thought  in  a  world  dead  and  gone?  Has  he 
utterly  forgotten  the  Reichstag  Resolutions  of  the  nine 
teenth  of  July,  or  does  he  deliberately  ignore  them?  They 
spoke  of  the  conditions  of  a  general  peace,  not  of  national 
aggrandizement  or  of  arrangements  between  state  and  state. 
The  peace  of  the  world  depends  upon  the  just  settlement 
of  each  of  the  several  problems  to  which  I  adverted  in  my 
recent  address  to  the  Congress.  I,  of  course,  do  not  mean 
that  the  peace  of  the  world  depends  upon  the  acceptance 
of  any  particular  set  of  suggestions  as  to  the  way  in  which 
those  problems  are  to  be  dealt  with.  I  mean  only  that  those 
problems  each  and  all  affect  the  whole  world;  that  unless 

4U 


Woodrow  Wilson 

they  are  dealt  with  in  a  spirit  of  unselfish  and  unbiased 
justice,  with  a  view  to  the  wishes,  the  natural  connections, 
the  racial  aspirations,  the  security,  and  the  peace  of  mind 
of  the  peoples  involved,  no  permanent  peace  will  have  been 
attained.  They  cannot  be  discussed  separately  or  in  cor 
ners.  None  of  them  constitutes  a  private  or  separate  in 
terest  from  which  the  opinion  of  the  world  may  be  shut  out. 
Whatever  affects  the  peace  affects  mankind,  and  nothing 
settled  by  military  force,  if  settled  wrong,  is  settled  at  all. 
It  will  presently  have  to  be  reopened. 

Is  Count  von  Hertling  not  aware  that  he  is  speaking  in 
the  court  of  mankind,  that  all  the  awakened  nations  of  the 
world  now  sit  in  judgment  on  what  every  public  man,  of 
whatever  nation,  may  say  on  the  issues  of  a  conflict  which 
has  spread  to  every  region  of  the  world?  The  Reichstag 
Resolutions  of  July  themselves  frankly  accepted  the  deci 
sions  of  that  court.  There  shall  be  no  annexations,  no 
contributions,  no  punitive  damages.  Peoples  are  not  to  be 
handed  about  from  one  sovereignty  to  another  by  an  inter 
national  conference  or  an  understanding  between  rivals  and 
antagonists.  National  aspirations  must  be  respected;  peo 
ples  may  now  be  dominated  and  governed  only  by  their 
own  consent.  "Self-determination"  is  not  a  mere  phrase. 
It  is  an  imperative  principle  of  action,  which  statesmen  will 
henceforth  ignore  at  their  peril.  We  cannot  have  general 
peace  for  the  asking,  or  by  the  mere  arrangements  of  a 
peace  conference.  It  cannot  be  pieced  together  out  of  indi 
vidual  understandings  between  powerful  states.  All  the 
parties  to  this  war  must  join  in  the  settlement  of  every 
issue  anywhere  involved  in  it;  because  what  we  are  seeking 
is  a  peace  that  we  can  all  unite  to  guarantee  and  maintain 
and  every  item  of  it  must  be  submitted  to  the  common  judg 
ment  whether  it  be  right  and  fair,  an  act  of  justice,  rather 
than  a  bargain  between  sovereigns. 

The  United  States  has  no  desire  to  interfere  in  European 
affairs  or  to  act  as  arbiter  in  European  territorial  disputes. 

475 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papert 

She  would  disdain  to  take  advantage  of  any  internal  weak 
ness  or  disorder  to  impose  her  own  will  upon  another 
people.  She  is  quite  ready  to  be  shown  that  the  settlements 
she  has  suggested  are  not  the  best  or  the  most  enduring. 
They  are  only  her  own  provisional  sketch  of  principles  and 
of  the  way  in  which  they  should  be  applied.  But  she  en 
tered  this  war  because  she  was  made  a  partner,  whether 
she  would  or  not,  in  the  sufferings  and  indignities  inflicted 
by  the  military  masters  of  Germany,  against  the  peace  and 
security  of  mankind;  and  the  conditions  of  peace  will  touch 
her  as  nearly  as  they  will  touch  any  other  nation  to  which 
is  entrusted  a  leading  part  in  the  maintenance  of  civiliza 
tion.  She  cannot  see  her  way  to  peace  until  the  causes  of 
this  war  are  removed,  its  renewal  rendered  as  nearly  as  may 
be  impossible. 

This  war  had  its  roots  in  the  disregard  of  the  rights  of 
small  nations  and  of  nationalities  which  lacked  the  union 
and  the  force  to  make  good  their  claim  to  determine  their 
own  allegiances  and  their  own  forms  of  political  life. 
Covenants  must  now  be  entered  into  which  will  render  such 
things  impossible  for  the  future;  and  those  covenants  must 
be  backed  by  the  united  force  of  all  the  nations  that  love 
justice  and  are  willing  to  maintain  it  at  any  cost.  If  terri 
torial  settlements  and  the  political  relations  of  great  popu 
lations  which  have  not  the  organized  power  to  resist  are 
to  be  determined  by  the  contracts  of  the  powerful  govern 
ments  which  consider  themselves  most  directly  affected,  as 
Count  von  Hertling  proposes,  why  may  not  economic  ques 
tions  also  ?  It  has  come  about  in  the  altered  world  in  which 
we  now  find  ourselves  that  justice  and  the  rights  of  peoples 
affect  the  whole  field  of  international  dealing  as  much  as 
access  to  raw  materials  and  fair  and  equal  conditions  of 
trade.  Count  von  Hertling  wants  the  essential  bases  of 
commercial  and  industrial  life  to  be  safeguarded  by  common 
agreement  and  guarantee,  but  he  cannot  expect  that  to  be 
conceded  him  if  the  other  matters  to  be  determined  by  the 

476 


Woodrow    Wilson 

articles  on  peace  are  not  handled  in  the  same  way  as  items 
in  the  final  accounting.  He  cannot  ask  the  benefit  of  com 
mon  agreement  in  the  one  field  without  according  it  in  the 
other.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  he  sees  that  separate  and 
selfish  compacts  with  regard  to  trade  and  the  essential 
materials  of  manufacture  would  afford  no  foundation  for 
peace.  Neither,  he  may  rest  assured,  will  separate  and 
selfish  compacts  with  regard  to  provinces  and  peoples. 

Count  Czernin  seems  to  see  the  fundamental  elements 
of  peace  with  clear  eyes  and  does  not  seek  to  obscure  them. 
He  sees  that  an  independent  Poland,  made  up  of  all  the  in 
disputably  Polish  peoples  who  lie  contiguous  to  one  another, 
is  a  matter  of  European  concern  and  must  of  course  be 
conceded;  that  Belgium  must  be  evacuated  and  restored, 
no  matter  what  sacrifices  and  concessions  that  may  involve ; 
and  that  national  aspirations  must  be  satisfied,  even  within 
his  own  Empire,  in  the  common  interest  of  Europe  and  man 
kind.  If  he  is  silent  about  questions  which  touch  the  in 
terest  and  purpose  of  his  allies  more  nearly  than  they  touch 
those  of  Austria  only,  it  must  of  course  be  because  he  feels 
constrained,  I  suppose,  to  defer  to  Germany  and  Turkey 
in  the  circumstances.  Seeing  and  conceding,  as  he  does, 
the  essential  principles  involved  and  the  necessity  of  can 
didly  applying  them,  he  naturally  feels  that  Austria  can 
respond  to  the  purpose  of  peace  as  expressed  by  the  United 
United  States  with  less  embarrassment  than  could  Ger 
many.  He  would  probably  have  gone  much  farther  had  it 
not  been  for  the  embarrassments  of  Austria's  alliances  and 
of  her  dependence  upon  Germany. 

After  all,  the  test  of  whether  it  is  possible  for  either 
government  to  go  any  further  in  this  comparison  of  views 
is  simple  and  obvious.  The  principles  to  be  applied  are 
these: 

First,  that  each  part  of  the  final  settlement  must  be  based 
upon  the  essential  justice  of  that  particular  case  and  upon 

477 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

such  adjustments  as  are  most  likely  to  bring  a  peace  that 
will  be  permanent; 

Second,  that  peoples  and  provinces  are  not  to  be  bartered 
about  from  sovereignty  to  sovereignty  as  if  they  were  mere 
chattels  and  pawns  in  a  game,  even  the  great  game,  now 
forever  discredited,  of  the  balance  of  power ;  but  that 

Third,  every  territorial  settlement  involved  in  this  war 
must  be  made  in  the  interest  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  popu 
lations  concerned,  and  not  as  a  part  of  any  mere  adjust 
ment  or  compromise  of  claims  amongst  rival  states;  and 

Fourth,  that  all  well  defined  national  aspirations  shall 
be  accorded  the  utmost  satisfaction  that  can  be  accorded 
them  without  introducing  new  or  perpetuating  old  elements 
of  discord  and  antagonism  that  would  be  likely  in  time  to 
break  the  peace  of  Europe  and  consequently  of  the  world. 

A  general  peace  erected  upon  such  foundations  can  be 
discussed.  Until  such  a  peace  can  be  secured  we  have  no 
choice  but  to  go  on.  So  far  as  we  can  judge,  these  prin 
ciples  that  we  regard  as  fundamental  are  already  every 
where  accepted  as  imperative  except  among  the  spokesmen 
of  the  military  and  annexationist  party  in  Germany.  If 
they  have  anywhere  else  been  rejected,  the  objectors  have 
not  been  sufficiently  numerous  or  influential  to  make  their 
voices  audible.  The  tragical  circumstance  is  that  this  one 
party  in  Germany  is  apparently  willing  and  able  to  send 
millions  of  men  to  their  death  to  prevent  what  all  the  world 
now  sees  to  be  just. 

I  would  not  be  a  true  spokesman  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  if  I  did  not  say  once  more  that  we  entered 
this  war  upon  no  small  occasion,  and  that  we  can  never 
turn  back  from  a  course  chosen  upon  principle.  Our  re 
sources  are  in  part  mobilized  now,  and  we  shall  not  pause 
until  they  are  mobilized  in  their  entirety.  Our  armies  are 
rapidly  going  to  the  fighting  front,  and  will  go  more  and 
more  rapidly.  Our  whole  strength  will  be  put  into  this 

478 


Woodrow  Wilson 

war  of  emancipation, — emancipation  from  the  threat  and 
attempted  mastery  of  selfish  groups  of  autocratic  rulers, — 
whatever  the  difficulties  and  present  partial  delays.  We  are 
indomitable  in  our  power  of  independent  action  and  can  in 
no  circumstances  consent  to  live  in  a  world  governed  by 
intrigue  and  force.  We  believe  that  our  own  desire  for  a 
new  international  order  under  which  reason  and  justice  and 
the  common  interests  of  mankind  shall  prevail  is  the  desire 
of  enlightened  men  everywhere.  Without  that  new  order 
the  world  will  be  without  peace  and  human  life  will  lack 
tolerable  conditions  of  existence  and  development.  Hav 
ing  set  our  hand  to  the  task  of  achieving  it,  we  shall  not  turn 
back. 

I  hope  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  add  that  no 
word  of  what  I  have  said  is  intended  as  a  threat.  That  is  not 
the  temper  of  our  people.  I  have  spoken  thus  only  that  the 
whole  world  may  know  the  true  spirit  of  America — that 
men  everywhere  may  know  that  our  passion  for  justice  and 
for  self-government  is  no  mere  passion  of  words  but  a  pas 
sion  which,  once  set  in  action,  must  be  satisfied.  The  power 
of  the  United  States  is  a  menace  to  no  nation  or  people.  It 
will  never  be  used  in  aggression  or  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  any  selfish  interest  of  our  own.  It  springs  out  of  free 
dom  and  is  for  the  service  of  freedom. 


[Replies  to  this  address  by  President  Wilson  were  made  by  the 
German  Chancellor  and  the  Austro-Hungarian  Foreign  Minister. 
Chancellor  von  Hertling  on  February  25  declared  in  the  Reichstag 
that  he  could  "fundamentally  agree"  with  the  four  principles  laid 
down  by  the  President  and  that  peace  could  be  discussed  on  such 
a  basis.  Count  Czernin — speaking  on  April  2  to  the  Vienna  City 
Council  and  "the  wider  public" — expressed  similar  agreement.  Both 
doubted  whether  President  Wilson  could  unite  his  allies  upon  such 
a  basis. 

Meanwhile,  Germany  and  Austria  had  forced  the  signing  of  peace 
treaties  which  wrested  vast  areas  from  Russia,  under  the  guise  of 
establishing  independent  kingdoms  and  republics  in  voluntary  asso- 

479 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

elation  with  Germany,  and  from  Rumania  under  the  pretext  of 
restoration  and  frontier  rectifications. 

President  Wilson  directed  attention  to  this  vital  difference 
between  German  words  and  German  deeds,  in  an  address  upon  the 
anniversary  of  America's  entrance  into  the  war,  as  follows:] 

PRESIDENT   WILSON   CONDEMNS   GERMAN   PEACE   TREATIES 

WITH  RUSSIA  AND  RUMANIA — AND  ACCEPTS  THE 

GERMAN  CHALLENGE  OF  FORCE 

(An  Address  at  Baltimore,  April  6,  1918) 

Fellow  Citizens:  This  is  the  anniversary  of  our  ac 
ceptance  of  Germany's  challenge  to  fight  for  our  right  to 
live  and  be  free,  and  for  the  sacred  rights  of  free  men 
everywhere.  The  Nation  is  awake.  There  is  no  need  to 
call  to  it.  We  know  what  the  war  must  cost,  our  utmost 
v  sacrifice,  the  lives  of  our  fittest  men  and,  if  need  be,  all  that 
we  possess.  The  loan  we  are  met  to  discuss  is  one  of  the 
least  parts  of  what  we  are  called  upon  to  give  and  to  do, 
though  in  itself  imperative.  The  people  of  the  whole  coun 
try  are  alive  to  the  necessity  of  it,  and  are  ready  to  lend 
to  the  utmost,  even  where  it  involves  a  sharp  skimping  and 
daily  sacrifice  to  lend  out  of  meagre  earnings.  They  will 
look  with  reprobation  and  contempt  upon  those  who  can  and 
will  not,  upon  those  who  demand  a  higher  rate  of  interest, 
upon  those  who  think  of  it  as  a  mere  commercial  transac 
tion.  I  have  not  come,  therefore,  to  urge  the  loan.  I  have 
come  only  to  give  you,  if  I  can,  a  more  vivid  conception  of 
what  it  is  for. 

The  reasons  for  this  great  war,  the  reason  why  it  had  to 
come,  the  need  to  fight  it  through,  and  the  issues  that  hang 
upon  its  outcome,  are  more  clearly  disclosed  now  than  ever 
before.  It  is  easy  to  see  just  what  this  particular  loan 
means  because  the  Cause  we  are  fighting  for  stands  more 
sharply  revealed  than  at  any  previous  crisis  of  the  momen 
tous  struggle.  The  man  who  knows  least  can  now  see 
plainly  how  the  cause  of  Justice  stands  and  what  the  im 
perishable  thing  is  he  is  asked  to  invest  in.  Men  in  Amer- 

480 


Woodrow     Wilson 

ica  may  be  more  sure  than  they  ever  were  before  that  the 
cause  is  their  own,  and  that,  if  it  should  be  lost,  their 
own  great  Nation's  place  and  mission  in  the  world  would 
be  lost  with  it. 

I  call  you  to  witness,  my  fellow  countrymen,  that  at  no 
stage  of  this  terrible  business  have  I  judged  the  purposes 
of  Germany  intemperately.  I  should  be  ashamed  in  the 
presence  of  affairs  so  grave,  so  fraught  with  the  destinies 
of  mankind  throughout  all  the  world,  to  speak  with  trucu- 
lence,  to  use  the  weak  language  of  hatred  or  vindictive 
purpose.  We  must  judge  as  we  would  be  judged.  I  have 
sought  to  learn  the  objects  Germany  has  in  this  war  from 
the  mouths  of  her  own  spokesmen,  and  to  deal  as  frankly 
with  them  as  I  wished  them  to  deal  with  me.  I  have  laid 
bare  our  own  ideals,  our  own  purposes,  without  reserve  or 
doubtful  phrase,  and  have  asked  them  to  say  as  plainly  what 
it  is  that  they  seek. 

We  have  ourselves  proposed  no  injustice,  no  aggression. 
We  are  ready,  whenever  the  final  reckoning  is  made,  to  be 
just  to  the  German  people,  deal  fairly  with  the  German 
power,  as  with  all  others.  There  can  be  no  difference  be 
tween  peoples  in  the  final  judgment,  if  it  is  indeed  to  be  a 
righteous  judgment.  To  propose  anything  but  justice,  even- 
handed  and  dispassionate  justice,  to  Germany  at  any  time, 
whatever  the  outcome  of  the  war,  would  be  to  renounce 
and  dishonour  our  own  cause.  For  we  ask  nothing  that  we 
are  not  willing  to  accord. 

It  has  been  with  this  thought  that  I  have  sought  to  learn 
from  those  who  spoke  for  Germany  whether  it  was  justice 
or  dominion  and  the  execution  of  their  own  will  upon  the 
other  nations  of  the  world  that  the  German  leaders  were 
seeking.  They  have  answered,  answered  in  unmistakable 
terms.  They  have  avowed  that  it  was  not  justice  but  do 
minion  and  the  unhindered  execution  of  their  own  will. 

The  avowal  has  not  come  from  Germany's  statesmen. 
It  has  come  from  her  military  leaders,  who  are  her  real 

481 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

rulers.  Her  statesmen  have  said  that  they  wished  peace, 
and  were  ready  to  discuss  its  terms  whenever  their  oppo 
nents  were  willing  to  sit  down  at  the  conference  table  with 
them.  Her  present  Chancellor  has  said — in  indefinite  and 
uncertain  terms,  indeed,  and  in  phrases  that  often  seem  to 
deny  their  own  meaning,  but  with  as  much  plainness  as  he 
thought  prudent — that  he  believed  that  peace  should  be 
based  upon  the  principles  which  we  had  declared  would  be 
our  own  in  the  final  settlement.  At  Brest-Litovsk  her  civil 
ian  delegates  spoke  in  similar  terms ;  professed  their  desire 
to  conclude  a  fair  peace  and  accord  to  the  peoples  with 
whose  fortunes  they  were  dealing  the  right  to  choose  their 
own  allegiances.  But  action  accompanied  and  followed  the 
profession.  Their  military  masters,  the  men  who  act  for 
Germany  and  exhibit  her  purpose  in  execution,  proclaimed 
a  very  different  conclusion.  We  can  not  mistake  what  they 
have  done — In  Russia,  in  Finland,  in  the  Ukraine,  in  Ru 
mania.  The  real  test  of  their  justice  and  fair  play  has  come. 
From  this  we  may  judge  the  rest.  They  are  enjoying  in 
Russia  a  cheap  triumph  in  which  no  brave  or  gallant  nation 
can  long  take  pride.  A  great  people,  helpless  by  their  own 
act,  lies  for  the  time  at  their  mercy.  Their  fair  profes 
sions  are  forgotten.  They  nowhere  set-up  justice,  but  every 
where  impose  their  power  and  exploit  everything  for  their 
own  use  and  aggrandizement ;  and  the  peoples  of  conquered 
provinces  are  invited  to  be  free  under  their  dominion ! 

Are  we  not  justified  in  believing  that  they  would  do  the 
same  things  at  their  western  front  if  they  were  not  there 
face  to  face  with  armies  whom  even  their  countless  divi 
sions  can  not  overcome?  If,  when  they  have  felt  their  check 
to  be  final,  they  should  propose  favourable  and  equitable 
terms  with  regard  to  Belgium  and  France  and  Italy,  could 
they  blame  us  if  we  concluded  that  they  did  so  only  to 
assure  themselves  of  a  free  hand  in  Russia  and  the  East? 

Their  purpose  is  undoubtedly  to  make  all  the  Slavic 
peoples,  all  the  free  and  ambitious  nations  of  the  Baltic 


Woodrow  Wilson 

peninsula,  all  the  lands  that  Turkey  has  dominated  and  mis 
ruled,  subject  to  their  will  and  ambition  and  build  upon  that 
dominion  an  empire  of  force  upon  which  they  fancy  that 
they  can  then  erect  an  empire  of  gain  and  commercial 
supremacy — an  empire  as  hostile  to  the  Americas  as  to  the 
Europe  which  it  will  overawe — an  empire  which  will  ulti 
mately  master  Persia,  India,  and  the  peoples  of  the  Far 
East.  In  such  a  program  our  ideals,  the  ideals  of  jus 
tice  and  humanity  and  liberty,  the  principle  of  the  free 
self-determination  of  nations  upon  which  all  the  modern 
world  insists,  can  play  no  part.  They  are  rejected  for  the 
ideals  of  power,  for  the  principle  that  the  strong  must  rule 
the  weak,  that  trade  must  follow  the  flag,  whether  those 
to  whom  it  is  taken  welcome  it  or  not,  that  the  peoples  of 
the  world  are  to  be  made  subject  to  the  patronage  and  over- 
lordship  of  those  who  have  the  power  to  enforce  it. 

That  program  once  carried  out,  America  and  all  who 
care  or  dare  to  stand  with  her  must  arm  and  prepare  them 
selves  to  contest  the  mastery  of  the  World,  a  toastery  in 
which  the  rights  of  common  men,  the  rights  of  women  and 
of  all  who  are  weak,  must  for  the  time  being  be  trodden 
under  foot  and  disregarded,  and  the  old,  age-long  struggle 
for  freedom  and  right  begin  again  at  its  beginning.  Every 
thing  that  America  has  lived  for  and  loved  and  grown 
great  to  vindicate  and  bring  to  a  glorious  realization  will 
have  fallen  in  utter  ruin  and  the  gates  of  mercy  once  more 
pitilessly  shut  upon  mankind ! 

The  thing  is  preposterous  and  impossible ;  and  yet  is  not 
that  what  the  whole  course  and  action  of  the  German 
armies  has  meant  wherever  they  have  moved?  I  do  not 
wish,  even  in  this  moment  of  utter  disillusionment,  to  judge 
harshly  or  unrighteously.  I  judge  only  what  the  German 
arms  have  accomplished  with  unpitying  thoroughness 
throughout  every  fair  region  they  have  touched. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  do  ?  For  myself,  I  am  ready,  ready 
still,  ready  even  now,  to  discuss  a  fair  and  just  and  honest 

483 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

peace  at  any  time  that  it  is  sincerely  purposed — a  peace  in 
which  the  strong  and  the  weak  shall  fare  alike.  But  the 
answer,  when  I  proposed  such  a  peace,  came  from  the  Ger 
man  commanders  in  Russia,  and  I  cannot  mistake  the  mean 
ing  of  the  answer. 

I  accept  the  challenge.  I  know  that  you  accept  it.  All 
the  world  shall  know  that  you  accept  it.  It  shall  appear 
in  the  utter  sacrifice  and  self-forgetfulness  with  which  we 
shall  give  all  that  we  love  and  all  that  we  have  to  re 
deem  the  world  and  make  it  fit  for  free  men  like  ourselves 
to  live  in.  This  now  is  the  meaning  of  all  that  we  do.  Let 
everything  that  we  say,  my  fellow  countrymen,  everything 
that  we  henceforth  plan  and  accomplish,  ring  true  to  this 
response  till  the  majesty  and  might  of  our  concerted  power 
shall  fill  the  thought  and  utterly  defeat  the  force  of  those 
who  flout  and  misprize  what  we  honour  and  hold  dear. 
Germany  has  once  more  said  that  force,  and  force  alone, 
shall  decide  whether  Justice  and  peace  shall  reign  in  the  af 
fairs  of  men,  whether  Right  as  America  conceives  it  or  Do 
minion  as  she  conceives  it  shall  determine  the  destinies  of 
mankind.  There  is,  therefore,  but  one  response  possible 
from  us:  Force,  Force  to  the  utmost,  Force  without  stint 
or  limit,  the  righteous  and  triumphant  Force  which  shall 
make  Right  the  law  of  the  world,  and  cast  every  selfish 
dominion  down  in  the  dust. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  THAT  ENDED  A  SHIPYARD  STRIKE 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  Seldom  did  labor  troubles  come  to 
the  forefront,  in  spite  of  ever-increasing  wage  demands  and 
the  vastness  of  industrial  effort.  Strikes  in  the  copper  dis 
tricts  of  Montana  and  Arizona  had  been  brought  to  an  end 
(see  page  1$8),  and  a  machinists'  strike  in  the  great  muni 
tion  center  at  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  was  later  to  check  the 
maximum  flow  of  war  supplies  (see  page  515).  In  each 

484 


Woodrow  Wilson 

case  that  was  brought  before  him,  the  President  insisted 
upon  the  acceptance  of  arbitration  and  a  prompt  return  to 
work.  The  present  instance  involved  wage  demands  of 
carpenters  in  shipyards,  and  the  following  letter  was  sent 
by  the  President  to  William  L.  Hutcheson,  head  of  the 
United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners:] 

February  17,  1918. 

General  President,  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners  of  America,  New  York: 

I  have  received  your  telegram  of  yesterday  and  am  very 
glad  to  note  the  expression  of  your  desire  as  a  patriotic 
citizen  to  assist  in  carrying  on  the  work  by  which  we  are 
trying  to  save  America  and  men  everywhere  who  work  and 
are  free.  Taking  advantage  of  that  assurance,  I  feel  it 
to  be  my  duty  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
strike  of  the  carpenters  in  the  shipyards  is  in  marked  and 
painful  contrast  to  the  action  of  labor  in  other  trades  and 
places.  Ships  are  absolutely  necessary  for  the  winning  of 
this  war.  No  one  can  strike  a  deadlier  blow  at  the  safety 
of  the  Nation  and  of  its  forces  on  the  other  side  than  by 
interfering  with  or  obstructing  the  shipbuilding  program. 
All  the  other  unions  engaged  in  this  indispensable  work 
have  agreed  to  abide  by  the  decisions  of  the  Shipbuilding 
Wage  Adjustment  Board.  That  board  has  dealt  fairly  and 
liberally  with  all  who  have  resorted  to  it. 

I  must  say  to  you  very  frankly  that  it  is  your  duty  to 
leave  to  it  the  solution  of  your  present  difficulties  with  your 
employers  and  to  advise  the  men  whom  you  represent  to 
return  at  once  to  work  pending  the  decision.  No  body  of 
men  have  the  moral  right  in  the  present  circumstances  of 
the  Nation  to  strike  until  every  method  of  adjustment  has 
been  tried  to  the  limit.  If  you  do  not  act  upon  this  prin 
ciple  you  are  undoubtedly  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
enemy,  whatever  may  be  your  own  conscious  purpose.  I 
do  not  see  that  anything  will  be  gained  by  my  seeing  you 

489 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

personally  until  you  have  accepted  and  acted  upon  that 
principle.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  see  that  the 
best  possible  conditions  of  labor  are  maintained,  as  it  is 
also  its  duty  to  see  to  it  that  there  is  no  lawless  and  con 
scienceless  profiteering,  and  that  duty  the  Government  has 
accepted  and  will  perform.  Will  you  cooperate  or  will  you 
obstruct  ? 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


ADDRESS  OPENING  THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  NEW  YORK 
FOR  THE  SECOND  RED  CROSS  FUND, 

MAY  18,  1918. 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow-Countrymen: 

I  should  be  very  sorry  to  think  that  Mr.  Davison  in  any 
degree  curtailed  his  exceedingly  interesting  speech  for  fear 
that  he  was  postponing  mine,  because  I  am  sure  you  lis 
tened  with  the  same  intent  and  intimate  interest  with  which 
I  listened  to  the  extraordinarily  vivid  account  he  gave  of 
the  things  which  he  had  realized  because  he  had  come  in 
contact  with  them  on  the  other  side  of  the  water.  We  com 
passed  them  with  our  imagination.  He  compassed  them  in 
his  personal  experience. 

I  am  not  come  here  to-night  to  review  for  you  the  work  of 
the  Red  Cross.  I  am  not  competent  to  do  so,  because  I 
have  not  had  the  time  or  the  opportunity  to  follow  it  in 
detail.  I  have  come  here  simply  to  say  a  few  words  to 
you  as  to  what  it  all  seems  to  me  to  mean. 

It  means  a  great  deal.  There  are  two  duties  with  which 
we  are  face  to  face.  The  first  duty  is  to  win  the  war.  The 
second  duty,  that  goes  hand  in  hand  with  it,  is  to  win  it 
greatly  and  worthily,  showing  the  real  quality  of  our  power 
not  only,  but  the  real  quality  of  our  purpose  and  of  our 
selves.  Of  course,  the  first  duty,  the  duty  that  we  must 
keep  in  the  foreground  of  our  thought  until  it  is  accom- 


Woodrow  Wilson 

plished,  is  to  win  the  war.  I  have  heard  gentlemen  recently 
say  that  we  must  get  five  million  men  ready.  Why  limit 
it  to  five  million?  I  have  asked  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  to  name  no  limit,  because  the  Congress  intends,  I 
am  sure,  as  we  all  intend,  that  every  ship  that  can  carry 
men  or  supplies  shall  go  laden  upon  every  voyage  with 
every  man  and  every  supply  she  can  carry. 

And  we  are  not  to  be  diverted  from  the  grim  purpose  of 
winning  the  war  by  any  insincere  approaches  upon  the  sub 
ject  of  peace.  I  can  say  with  a  clear  conscience  that  I 
have  tested  those  intimations  and  have  found  them  insincere. 
I  now  recognize  them  for  what  they  are,  an  opportunity 
to  have  a  free  hand,  particularly  in  the  East,  to  carry  out 
purposes  of  conquest  and  exploitation.  Every  proposal 
with  regard  to  accommodation  in  the  West  involves  a  reser 
vation  with  regard  to  the  East.  Now,  so  far  as  I  am  con 
cerned,  I  intend  to  stand  by  Russia  as  well  as  France.  The 
helpless  and  the  friendless  are  the  very  ones  that  need 
friends  and  succor,  and  if  any  man  in  Germany  thinks 
we  are  going  to  sacrifice  anybody  for  our  own  sake,  I  tell 
them  now  they  are  mistaken.  For  the  glory  of  this  war,  my 
fellow-citizens,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  is  that  it  is, 
perhaps  for  the  first  time  in  history,  an  unselfish  war.  I 
could  not  be  proud  to  fight  for  a  selfish  purpose,  but  I  can 
be  proud  to  fight  for  mankind.  If  they  wish  peace,  let 
them  come  forward  through  accredited  representatives  and 
lay  their  terms  on  the  table.  We  have  laid  ours,  and  they 
know  what  they  are. 

But  behind  all  this  grim  purpose,  my  friends,  lies  the 
opportunity  to  demonstrate  not  only  force,  which  will  be 
demonstrated  to  the  utmost,  but  the  opportunity  to  demon 
strate  character,  and  it  is  that  opportunity  that  we  have 
most  conspicuously  in  the  work  of  the  Red  Cross.  Not 
that  our  men  in  arms  do  not  represent  our  character,  for 
they  do,  and  it  is  a  character  which  those  who  see  and 
realize  appreciate  and  admire,  but  their  duty  is  the  duty 

4*7 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

of  force.  The  duty  of  the  Red  Cross  is  the  duty  of  mercy 
and  succor  and  friendship. 

Have  you  formed  a  picture  in  your  imagination  of  what 
this  war  is  doing  for  us  and  for  the  world?  In  my  own 
mind  I  am  convinced  that  not  a  hundred  years  of  peace 
could  have  knitted  this  Nation  together  as  this  single  year 
of  war  has  knitted  it  together ;  and  better  even  than  that,  if 
possible  it  is  knitting  the  world  together.  Look  at  the 
picture !  In  the  center  of  the  scene,  four  nations  engaged 
against  the  world,  and  at  every  point  of  vantage,  showing 
that  they  are  seeking  selfish  aggrandizement;  and  against 
them,  twenty-three  governments,  representing  the  greater 
part  of  the  population  of  the  world,  drawn  together  into 
a  new  sense  of  community  of  interest,  a  new  sense  of  com 
munity  of  purpose,  a  new  sense  of  unity  of  life.  The  Sec 
retary  of  War  told  me  an  interesting  incident  the  other  day. 
He  said  when  he  was  in  Italy  a  member  of  the  Italian 
Government  was  explaining  to  him  the  many  reasons  why 
Italy  felt  near  to  the  United  States.  He  said,  "If  you 
want  to  try  an  interesting  experiment,  go  up  to  any  one  of 
these  troop  trains  and  ask  in  English  how  many  of  them 
have  been  in  America,  and  see  what  happens."  He  tried 
the  experiment.  He  went  up  to  a  troop  train  and  he  asked, 
"How  many  of  you  boys  have  been  in  America?"  and  he 
said  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  half  of  them  sprang  up:  "Me 
from  San  Francisco,"  "Me  from  New  York," — all  over. 
There  was  part  of  the  heart  of  America  in  the  Italian 
Army, — people  that  had  been  knitted  to  us  by  association, 
who  knew  us,  who  had  lived  amongst  us,  who  had  worked 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  us,  and  now,  friends  of  America, 
were  fighting  for  their  native  Italy. 

Friendship  is  the  only  cement  that  will  ever  hold  the 
world  together.  And  this  intimate  contact  of  the  great 
Red  Cross  with  the  peoples  who  are  suffering  the  terrors 
and  deprivations  of  this  war  is  going  to  be  one  of  the  great 
est  instrumentalities  of  friendship  that  the  world  ever 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

knew ;  and  the  center  of  the  heart  of  it  all,  if  we  sustain  it 
properly,  will  be  this  land  that  we  so  dearly  love. 

My  friends,  a  great  day  of  duty  has  come,  and  duty  finds 
a  man's  soul  as  no  kind  of  work  can  ever  find  it.  May  I 
say  this:  The  duty  that  faces  us  all  now  is  to  serve  one 
another.  No  man  can  afford  to  make  a  fortune  out  of  this 
war.  There  are  men  amongst  us  who  have  forgotten  that, 
if  they  ever  saw  it.  Some  of  you  are  old  enough — I  am 
old  enough — to  remember  men  who  made  fortunes  out  of 
the  Civil  War,  and  you  know  how  they  were  regarded  by 
their  fellow-citizens.  That  was  a  war  to  save  one  country. 
This  is  a  war  to  save  the  world.  And  your  relation  to  the 
Red  Cross  is  one  of  the  relations  which  will  relieve  you  of 
the  stigma.  You  cannot  give  anything  to  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States.  It  will  not  accept  it.  There  is 
a  law  of  Congress  against  accepting  even  services  without 
pay.  The  only  thing  that  the  Government  will  accept  is  a 
loan  and  duties  performed,  but  it  is  a  great  deal  better  to 
give  than  to  lend  or  to  pay,  and  your  great  channel  for 
giving  is  the  American  Red  Cross.  Down  in  your  hearts 
you  can  not  take  very  much  satisfaction  in  the  last  analysis 
in  lending  money  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
because  the  interest  which  you  draw  will  burn  your  pockets. 
It  is  a  commercial  transaction;  and  some  men  have  even 
dared  to  cavil  at  the  rate  of  interest,  not  knowing  the  inci 
dental  commentary  that  that  constitutes  upon  their 
attitude.  / 

But  when  you  give,  something  of  your  heart,  something 
of  your  soul,  something  of  yourself  goes  with  the  gift,  par 
ticularly  when  it  is  given  in  such  form  that  it  never  can 
come  back  by  way  of  direct  benefit  to  yourself.  You  know 
there  is  the  old  cynical  definition  of  gratitude,  as  "the  lively 
expectation  of  favors  to  come."  Well,  there  is  no  expec 
tation  of  favors  to  come  in  this  kind  of  giving.  These 
things  are  bestowed  in  order  that  the  world  may  be  a  fitter 
place  to  live  in,  that  men  may  be  succored,  that  homes  may 

489 


*'     Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

be  restored,  that  suffering  may  be  relieved,  that  the  face 
of  the  earth  may  have  the  blight  of  destruction  removed 
from  it,  and  that  wherever  force  goes,  there  shall  go  mercy 
and  helpfulness. 

And  when  you  give,  give  absolutely  all  that  you  can 
spare,  and  do  not  consider  yourself  liberal  in  the  giving. 
If  you  give  with  self-adulation  you  are  not  giving  at  all, 
you  are  giving  to  your  own  vanity,  but  if  you  give  until  it 
hurts,  then  your  heart-blood  goes  into  it. 

Think  what  we  have  here !  We  call  it  the  American  Red 
Cross,  but  it  is  merely  a  branch  of  a  great  international  or 
ganization  which  is  not  only  recognized  by  the  statutes  of 
each  of  the  civilized  governments  of  the  world,  but  is  rec 
ognized  by  international  agreement  and  treaty,  as  the 
recognized  and  accepted  instrumentality  of  mercy  and  suc 
cor.  And  one  of  the  deepest  stains  that  rest  upon  the  repu 
tation  of  the  German  Army  is  that  they  have  not  respected 
the  Red  Cross.  That  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter. 
They  have  not  respected  the  instrumentality  they  them 
selves  participated  in  setting  up  as  the  thing  which  no  man 
was  to  touch  because  it  was  the  expression  of  common  hu 
manity.  By  being  members  of  the  American  Red  Cross, 
we  are  members  of  a  great  fraternity  and  comradeship 
which  extends  all  over  the  world.  This  cross  which  these 
ladies  bore  to-day  is  an  emblem  of  Christianity  itself. 

It  fills  my  imagination,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  think 
of  the  women  all  over  this  country  who  are  busy  to-night, 
and  are  busy  every  night  and  every  day,  doing  the  work 
of  the  Red  Cross,  busy  with  a  great  eagerness  to  find  out 
the  most  serviceable  thing  to  do,  busy  with  a  forgetfulness 
of  all  the  old  frivolities  of  their  social  relationships,  ready 
to  curtail  the  duties  of  the  household  in  order  that  they 
may  contribute  to  this  common  work  that  all  their  hearts 
are  engaged  in  and  in  doing  which  their  hearts  become  ac 
quainted  with  each  other.  When  you  think  of  this,  you 
realize  how  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  being 

490 


Woodrow  Wilson 

drawn  together  into  a  great  intimate  family  whose  heart  is 
being  used  for  the  service  of  the  soldiers  not  only,  but  for 
the  service  of  civilians  where  they  suffer  and  are  lost  in  a 
maze  of  distresses  and  distractions. 

You  have,  then,  this  noble  picture  of  justice  and  mercy 
as  the  two  servants  of  liberty.  For  only  where  men  are 
free  do  they  think  the  thoughts  of  comradeship,  only  where 
they  are  free  do  they  think  the  thoughts  of  sympathy,  only 
where  they  are  free  are  they  mutually  helpful,  only  where 
they  are  free  do  they  realize  their  dependence  upon  one 
another  and  their  comradeship  in  a  common  interest  and 
common  necessity.  If  you  ladies  and  gentlemen  could  read 
some  of  the  touching  despatches  which  come  through  official 
channels,  for  even  through  these  channels  there  come  voices 
of  humanity  that  are  infinitely  pathetic ;  if  you  could  catch 
some  of  those  voices  that  speak  the  utter  longing  of  op 
pressed  and  helpless  peoples  all  over  the  world  to  hear 
something  like  the  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,  to  hear  the 
feet  of  the  great  hosts  of  Liberty  coming  to  set  them  free, 
to  set  their  minds  free,  set  their  lives  free,  set  their  chil 
dren  free;  you  would  know  what  comes  into  the  heart  of 
those  who  are  trying  to  contribute  all  the  brains  and  power 
they  have  to  this  great  enterprise  of  Liberty.  I  summon 
you  to  the  comradeship.  I  summon  you  in  this  next  week 
to  say  how  much  and  how  sincerely  and  how  unanimously 
you  sustain  the  heart  of  the  world. 


MESSAGE  TO  THE  ITALIAN  PEOPLE  ON  THE  THIRD  ANNI 
VERSARY  OF   ITALY'S   ENTRANCE   INTO  THE   WAR, 

MAY  23,  1918. 

I  am  sure  that  I  am  speaking  for  the  people  of  the 
United  States  in  sending  to  the  Italian  people  warm  fra 
ternal  greetings  upon  this  the  anniversary  of  the  entrance 
of  Italy  into  this  great  war  in  which  there  is  being  fought 

491 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

out  once  for  all  the  irrepressible  conflict  between  free  self- 
government  and  the  dictation  of  force. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  looked  with  pro 
found  interest  and  sympathy  upon  the  efforts  and  sacrifices 
of  the  Italian  people,  are  deeply  and  sincerely  interested 
in  the  present  and  future  security  of  Italy,  and  are  glad  to 
find  themselves  associated  with  a  people  to  whom  they  are 
bound  by  so  many  personal  and  intimate  ties  in  a  struggle 
whose  object  is  liberation,  freedom,  the  rights  of  men  and 
nations  to  live  their  own  lives  and  determine  their  own 
fortunes,  the  rights  of  the  weak  as  well  as  of  the  strong, 
and  the  maintenance  of  justice  by  the  irresistible  force  of 
free  nations  leagued  together  in  the  defense  of  mankind. 

With  ever  increasing  resolution  and  force  we  shall  con 
tinue  to  stand  together  in  this  sacred  common  cause.  Amer 
ica  salutes  the  gallant  Kingdom  of  Italy  and  bids  her 
Godspeed. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  CONGRESS,  ON  THE  NEED 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  REVENUE 
(Delivered  in  Joint  Session,  May  27,  1918) 

[Congress  had  been  making  plans  to  adjourn,  and  the  President 
deemed  it  necessary  to  recommend  immediate  consideration  of 
means  for  increasing  the  national  revenues  to  help  meet  huge  war 
expenditures.  His  first  revenue  message  to  Congress  (September 
4,  1914 — see  page  64)  had  urged  an  additional  revenue  of  $100,- 
000,000.  Congress  had  not  only  acted  favorably  upon  that,  but  in 
September,  1916,  had  passed  a  measure  raising  $200,000,000  more. 
In  September,  1917,  after  America's  entrance  into  the  war,  Con 
gress  passed  a  bill  designed  to  yield  $2,500,000,000  in  additional 
taxation,  or  a  total  national  revenue  of  $4,000,000,000.  Now,  only 
eight  months  later,  the  President  declares  that  "additional  rev 
enues  must  manifestly  be  provided  for."  In  the  summer  and  fall 
following  the  address  printed  below,  Congress  framed  and  passed  a 
tax  bill  estimated  to  yield  $8,000,000,000  annually,  or  one-third  of 
the  Government's  current  war  expenditures.] 

492 


Woodrow  Wilson 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 

It  is  with  unaffected  reluctance  that  I  come  to  ask  you 
to  prolong  your  session  long  enough  to  provide  more  ade 
quate  resources  for  the  Treasury  for  the  conduct  of  the 
war.  I  have  reason  to  appreciate  as  fully  as  you  do  how 
arduous  the  session  has  been.  Your  labors  have  been  se 
vere  and  protracted.  You  have  passed  a  long  series  of 
measures  which  required  the  debate  of  many  doubtful 
questions  of  judgment  and  many  exceedingly  difficult  ques 
tions  of  principle  as  well  as  of  practice.  The  summer  is 
upon  us  in  which  labor  and  counsel  are  twice  arduous  and 
are  constantly  apt  to  be  impaired  by  lassitude  and  fatigue. 
The  elections  are  at  hand  and  we  ought  as  soon  as  possible 
to  go  and  render  an  intimate  account  of  our  trusteeship  to 
the  people  who  delegated  us  to  act  for  them  in  the  weighty 
and  anxious  matters  that  crowd  upon  us  in  these  days 
of  critical  choice  and  action.  But  we  dare  not  go  to  the 
elections  until  we  have  done  our  duty  to  the  full.  These 
are  days  when  duty  stands  stark  and  naked  and  even  with 
closed  eyes  we  know  it  is  there.  Excuses  are  unavailing. 
We  have  either  done  our  duty  or  we  have  not.  The  fact 
will  be  as  gross  and  plain  as  the  duty  itself.  In  such  a 
case  lassitude  and  fatigue  seem  negligible  enough.  The 
facts  are  tonic  and  suffice  to  freshen  the  labor. 

And  the  facts  are  these :  Additional  revenues  must  mani 
festly  be  provided  for.  It  would  be  a  most  unsound  policy 
to  raise  too  large  a  proportion  of  them  by  loan,  and  it  is 
evident  that  the  four  billions  now  provided  for  by  taxation 
will  not  of  themselves  sustain  the  greatly  enlarged  budget 
to  which  we  must  immediately  look  forward.  We  cannot 
in  fairness  wait  until  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year  is  at  hand 
to  apprise  our  people  of  the  taxes  they  must  pay  on  their 
earnings  of  the  present  calendar  year,  whose  accountings 
and  expenditures  will  then  be  closed.  We  cannot  get  in 
creased  taxes  unless  the  country  knows  what  they  are  to 
be  and  practices  the  necessary  economy  to  make  them  avail- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

able.  Definiteness,  early  definiteness,  as  to  what  its  tasks 
are  to  be  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  successful  admin 
istration  of  the  Treasury:  it  cannot  frame  fair  and  work 
able  regulations  in  haste ;  and  it  must  frame  its  regulations 
in  haste  if  it  is  not  to  know  its  exact  task  until  the  very  eve 
of  its  performance.  The  present  tax  laws  are  marred, 
moreover,  by  inequities  which  ought  to  be  remedied.  Indis 
putable  facts,  every  one ;  and  we  cannot  alter  or  blink  them. 
To  state  them  is  argument  enough. 

And  yet  perhaps  you  will  permit  me  to  dwell  for  a  mo 
ment  upon  the  situation  they  disclose.  Enormous  loans 
freely  spent  in  the  stimulation  of  industry  of  almost  every 
sort  produce  inflations  and  extravagances  which  presently 
make  the  whole  economic  structure  questionable  and  inse 
cure  and  the  very  basis  of  credit  is  cut  away.  Only  fair, 
equitably  distributed  taxation,  of  the  widest  incidence  and 
drawing  chiefly  from  the  sources  which  would  be  likely  to 
demoralize  credit  by  their  very  abundance,  can  prevent  in 
flation  and  keep  our  industrial  system  free  of  speculation 
and  waste.  We  shall  naturally  turn,  therefore,  I  suppose, 
to  war  profits  and  incomes  and  luxuries  for  the  additional 
taxes.  But  the  war  profits  and  incomes  upon  which  the 
increased  taxes  will  be  levied  will  be  the  profits  and  in 
comes  of  the  calendar  year  1918.  It  would  be  manifestly 
unfair  to  wait  until  the  early  months  of  1919  to  say  what 
they  are  to  be.  It  might  be  difficult,  I  should  imagine,  to 
run  the  mill  with  water  that  had  already  gone  over  the 
wheel. 

Moreover,  taxes  of  that  sort  will  not  be  paid  until  the 
June  of  next  year,  and  the  Treasury  must  anticipate  them. 
It  must  use  the  money  they  are  to  produce  before  it  is  due. 
It  must  sell  short  time  certificates  of  indebtedness.  In  the 
autumn  a  much  larger  sale  of  long-time  bonds  must  be 
effected  than  has  yet  been  attempted.  What  are  the  bank 
ers  to  think  of  the  certificates  if  they  do  not  certainly  know 
where  the  money  is  to  come  from  which  is  to  take  them  up  ? 

494 


Woodrow  Wilson 

And  how  are  investors  to  approach  the  purchase  of  bonds 
with  any  sort  of  confidence  or  knowledge  of  their  own 
affairs  if  they  do  not  know  what  taxes  they  are  to  pay  and 
what  economies  and  adjustments  of  their  business  they 
must  effect?  I  cannot  assure  the  country  of  a  successful 
administration  of  the  Treasury  in  1918  if  the  question  of 
further  taxation  is  to  be  left  undecided  until  1919. 

The  consideration  that  dominates  every  other  now  and 
makes  every  other  seem  trivial  and  negligible  is  the  win 
ning  of  the  war.  We  are  not  only  in  the  midst  of  the  war, 
we  are  at  the  very  peak  and  crisis  of  it.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  our  men,  carrying  our  hearts  with  them  and 
our  fortunes,  are  in  the  field,  and  ships  are  crowding  faster 
and  faster  to  the  ports  of  France  and  England  with  regi 
ment  after  regiment,  thousand  after  thousand,  to  join  them 
until  the  enemy  shall  be  beaten  and  brought  to  a  reckoning 
with  mankind.  There  can  be  no  pause  or  intermission. 
The  great  enterprise  must,  on  the  contrary,  be  pushed  with 
greater  and  greater  energy.  The  volume  of  our  might 
must  steadily  and  rapidly  be  augmented  until  there  can  be 
no  question  of  resisting  it.  If  that  is  to  be  accomplished, 
gentlemen,  money  must  sustain  it  to  the  utmost.  Our  finan 
cial  program  must  no  more  be  left  in  doubt  or  suffered  to 
lag  than  our  ordnance  program  or  our  ship  program  or  our 
munitions  program  or  our  progam  for  making  millions  of 
men  ready.  These  others  are  not  programs,  indeed,  but 
mere  plans  upon  paper,  unless  there  is  to  be  an  unques 
tionable  supply  of  money. 

That  is  the  situation,  and  it  is  the  situation  which  cre 
ates  the  duty,  no  choice  or  preference  of  ours.  There  is 
only  one  way  to  meet  that  duty.  We  must  meet  it  without 
selfishness  or  fear  of  consequences.  Politics  is  adjourned. 
The  elections  will  go  to  those  who  think  least  of  it;  to 
those  who  go  to  the  constituencies  without  explanations 
or  excuses,  with  a  plain  record  of  duty  faithfully  and  dis 
interestedly  performed.  I,  for  one,  am  always  confident 

495 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

that  the  people  of  this  country  will  give  a  just  verdict  upon 
the  service  of  the  men  who  act  for  them  when  the  facts  are 
such  that  no  man  can  disguise  or  conceal  them.  There  is 
no  danger  of  deceit  now.  An  intense  and  pitiless  light 
beats  upon  every  man  and  every  action  in  this  tragic  plot 
of  war  that  is  now  upon  the  stage.  If  lobbyists  hurry  to 
Washington  to  attempt  to  turn  what  you  do  in  the  matter 
of  taxation  to  their  protection  or  advantage,  the  light  will 
beat  also  upon  them.  There  is  abundant  fuel  for  the  light 
in  the  records  of  the  Treasury  with  regard  to  profits  of 
every  sort.  The  profiteering  that  cannot  be  got  at  by  the 
restraints  of  conscience  and  love  of  country  can  be  got  at 
by  taxation.  There  is  such  profiteering  now  and  the  infor 
mation  with  regard  to  it  is  available  and  indisputable. 

I  am  advising  you  to  act  upon  this  matter  of  taxation 
now,  gentlemen,  not  because  I  do  not  know  that  you  can  see 
and  interpret  the  facts  and  the  duty  they  impose  just  as 
well  and  with  as  clear  a  perception  of  the  obligations  in 
volved  as  I  can,  but  because  there  is  a  certain  solemn  sat 
isfaction  in  sharing  with  you  the  responsibilities  of  such 
a  time.  The  world  never  stood  in  such  case  before.  Men 
never  before  had  so  clear  or  so  moving  a  vision  of  duty. 
I  know  that  you  will  begrudge  the  work  to  be  done  here  by 
us  no  more  than  the  men  begrudge  us  theirs  who  lie  in  the 
trenches  and  sally  forth  to  their  death.  There  is  a  stimu 
lating  comradeship  knitting  us  all  together.  And  this  task 
to  which  I  invite  your  immediate  consideration  will  be  per 
formed  under  favorable  influences  if  we  will  look  to  what 
the  country  is  thinking  and  expecting  and  care  nothing 
at  all  for  what  is  being  said  and  believed  in  the  lobbies  of 
Washington  hotels,  where  the  atmosphere  seems  to  make 
it  possible  to  believe  what  is  believed  nowhere  else. 

Have  you  not  felt  the  spirit  of  the  nation  rise  and  its 
thought  become  a  single  and  common  thought  since  these 
eventful  days  came  in  which  we  have  been  sending  our  boys 
to  the  other  side?  I  think  you  must  read  that  thought,  as 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

I  do,  to  mean  this,  that  the  people  of  this  country  are  not 
only  united  in  the  resolute  purpose  to  win  this  war  but  are 
ready  and  willing  to  bear  any  burden  and  undergo  any 
sacrifice  that  it  may  be  necessary  for  them  to  bear  in  order 
to  win  it.  We  need  not  be  afraid  to  tax  them,  if  we  lay 
taxes  justly.  They  know  that  the  war  must  be  paid  for 
and  that  it  is  they  who  must  pay  for  it,  and  if  the  burden 
is  justly  distributed  and  the  sacrifice  made  a  common 
sacrifice  from  which  none  escapes  who  can  bear  it  at  all, 
they  will  carry  it  cheerfully  and  with  a  sort  of  solemn  pride. 
I  have  always  been  proud  to  be  an  American,  and  was  never 
more  proud  than  now,  when  all  that  we  have  said  and  all 
that  we  have  foreseen  about  our  people  is  coming  true.  The 
great  days  have  come  when  the  only  thing  that  they  ask  for 
or  admire  is  duty  greatly  and  adequately  done;  when  their 
only  wish  for  America  is  that  she  may  share  the  freedom 
she  enjoys;  when  a  great,  compelling  sympathy  wells  up 
in  their  hearts  for  men  everywhere  who  suffer  and  are  op 
pressed  ;  and  when  they  see  at  last  the  high  uses  for  which 
their  wealth  has  been  piled  up  and  their  mighty  power 
accumulated  and,  counting  neither  blood  nor  treasure  now 
that  their  final  day  of  opportunity  has  come,  rejoice  to 
spend  and  to  be  spent  through  a  long  night  of  suffering 
and  terror  in  order  that  they  and  men  everywhere  may  see 
the  dawn  of  a  day  of  righteousness  and  justice  and  peace. 
Shall  we  grow  weary  when  they  bid  us  act? 


WILSON'S  ADDRESS  AT  MOUNT  VERNON,  VOICING  THE  WAR 
OBJECTS  OF  THE  ASSOCIATED  PEOPLES  OF  THE  WORLD, 

JULY  4,  1918. 

Gentlemen    of    the    Diplomatic    Corps    and    My    Fellow- 
Citizens: 

I  am  happy  to  draw  apart  with  you  to  this  quiet  place 
of  old  counsel  in  order  to  speak  a  little  of  the  meaning  of 

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this  day  of  our  nation's  independence.  The  place  seems 
very  still  and  remote.  It  is  as  serene  and  untouched  by 
the  hurry  of  the  world  as  it  was  in  those  great  days  long 
ago  when  General  Washington  was  here  and  held  leisurely 
conference  with  the  men  who  were  to  be  associated  with 
him  in  the  creation  of  a  nation.  From  these  gentle  slopes 
they  looked  out  upon  the  world  and  saw  it  whole,  saw  it 
with  the  light  of  the  future  upon  it,  saw  it  with  modern 
eyes  that  turned  away  from  a  past  which  men  of  liberated 
spirits  could  no  longer  endure.  It  is  for  that  reason  that 
we  cannot  feel,  even  here,  in  the  immediate  presence  of  this 
sacred  tomb,  that  this  is  a  place  of  death.  It  was  a  place 
of  achievement.  A  great  promise  that  was  meant  for  all 
mankind  was  here  given  plan  and  reality.  The  associations 
by  which  we  are  here  surrounded  are  the  inspiriting  asso 
ciations  of  that  noble  death  which  is  only  a  glorious  con 
summation.  From  this  green  hillside  we  also  ought  to  be 
able  to  see  with  comprehending  eyes  the  world  that  lies 
about  us  and  should  conceive  anew  the  purposes  that  must 
set  men  free. 

It  is  significant — significant  of  their  own  character  and 
purpose  and  of  the  influences  they  were  setting  afoot — that 
Washington  and  his  associates,  like  the  barons  at  Runny- 
mede,  spoke  and  acted,  not  for  a  class,  but  for  a  people. 
It  has  been  left  for  us  to  see  to  it  that  it  shall  be  under 
stood  that  they  spoke  and  acted,  not  for  a  single  people 
only,  but  for  all  mankind.  They  were  thinking,  not  of 
themselves  and  of  the  material  interests  which  centred  in 
the  little  groups  of  landholders  and  merchants  and  men  of 
affairs  with  whom  they  were  accustomed  to  act,  in  Virginia 
and  the  colonies  to  the  north  and  south  of  her,  but  of  a 
people  which  wished  to  be  done  with  classes  and  special 
interests  and  the  authority  of  men  whom  they  had  not 
themselves  chosen  to  rule  over  them.  They  entertained  no 
private  purpose,  desired  no  peculiar  privilege.  They  were 
consciously  planning  that  men  of  every  class  should  be  free 


Woodrow  Wilson 

and  America  a  place  to  which  men  out  of  every  nation 
might  resort  who  wished  to  share  with  them  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  free  men.  And  we  take  our  cue  from  them — 
do  we  not?  We  intend  what  they  intended.  We  here  in 
America  believe  our  participation  in  this  present  war  to  be 
only  the  fruitage  of  what  they  planted.  Our  case  differs 
from  theirs  only  in  this,  that  it  is  our  inestimable  privi 
lege  to  concert  with  men  out  of  every  nation  what  shall 
make  not  only  the  liberties  of  America  secure  but  the  liber 
ties  of  every  other  people'  as  well.  We  are  happy  in  the 
thought  that  we  are  permitted  to  do  what  they  would  have 
done  had  they  been  in  our  place.  There  must  now  be  set 
tled  once  for  all  what  was  settled  for  America  in  the  great 
age  upon  whose  inspiration  we  draw  to-day.  This  is  surely 
a  fitting  place  from  which  calmly  to  look  out  upon  our 
task,  that  we  may  fortify  our  spirits  for  its  accomplish 
ment.  And  this  is  the  appropriate  place  from  which  to 
avow,  alike  to  the  friends  who  look  on  and  to  the  friends 
with  whom  we  have  the  happiness  to  be  associated  in  action, 
the  faith  and  purpose  with  which  we  act. 

This,  then,  is  our  conception  of  the  great  struggle  in 
which  we  are  engaged.  The  plot  is  written  plain  upon 
every  scene  and  every  act  of  the  supreme  tragedy.  On 
the  one  hand  stand  the  peoples  of  the  world — not  only  the 
peoples  actually  engaged,  but  many  others  also  who  suffer 
under  mastery  but  cannot  act;  peoples  of  many  races  and 
in  every  part  of  the  world — the  people  of  stricken  Russia 
still,  among  the  rest,  though  they  are  for  the  moment  unor 
ganized  and  helpless.  Opposed  to  them,  masters  of  many 
armies,  stand  an  isolated,  friendless  group  of  governments 
who  speak  no  common  purpose  but  only  selfish  ambitions 
of  their  own  by  which  none  can  profit  but  themselves,  and 
whose  peoples  are  fuel  in  their  hands;  governments  which 
fear  their  people  and  yet  are  for  the  time  their  sovereign 
lords,  making  every  choice  for  them  and  disposing  of  their 
lives  and  fortunes  as  they  will,  as  well  as  of  the  lives  and 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

fortunes  of  every  people  who  fall  under  their  power — 
governments  clothed  with  the  strange  trappings  and  the 
primitive  authority  of  an  age  that  is  altogether  alien  and 
hostile  to  our  own.  The  Past  and  the  Present  are  in  deadly 
grapple  and  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  being  done  to 
death  between  them. 

There  can  be  but  one  issue.  The  •  settlement  must  be 
final.  There  can  be  no  compromise.  No  halfway  decision 
would  be  tolerable.  No  halfway  decision  is  conceivable. 
These  are  the  ends  for  which  the  associated  peoples  of  the 
world  are  fighting  and  which  must  be  conceded  them  before 
there  can  be  peace: 

I.  The  destruction  of  every  arbitrary  power  anywhere 
that  can  separately,  secretly,  and  of  its  single  choice  disturb 
the  peace  of  the  world;  or,  if  it  cannot  be  presently  de 
stroyed,  at  the  least  its  reduction  to  virtual  impotence. 

II.  The  settlement  of  every  question,  whether  of  terri 
tory,  of  sovereignty,  of  economic  arrangement,  or  of  polit 
ical  relationship,  upon  the  basis  of  the  free  acceptance  of 
that  settlement  by  the  people  immediately  concerned,  and 
not  upon  the  basis  of  the  material  interest  or  advantage  of 
any  other  nation  or  people  which  may  desire  a  different 
settlement  for  the  sake   of  its   own  exterior  influence   or 
mastery. 

III.  The  consent  of  all  nations  to  be  governed  in  their 
conduct  towards  each  other  by  the  same  principles  of  honor 
and  of  respect  for  the  common  law  of  civilized  society  that 
govern  the  individual  citizens  of  all  modern  states  in  their 
relations  with  one  another ;  to  the  end  that  all  promises  and 
covenants  may  be  sacredly  observed,  no  private  plots  or 
conspiracies    hatched,    no    selfish    injuries    wrought    with 
impunity,  and  a  mutual  trust  established  upon  the  hand 
some  foundation  of  a  mutual  respect  for  right. 

IV.  The    establishment    of    an    organization    of    peace 
which  shall  make  it  certain  that  the  combined  power  of  free 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

nations  will  check  every  invasion  of  right  and  serve  to 
make  peace  and  justice  the  more  secure  by  affording  a  defi 
nite  tribunal  of  opinion  to  which  all  must  submit  and  by 
which  every  international  readjustment  that  cannot  be  ami 
cably  agreed  upon  by  the  peoples  directly  concerned  shall 
be  sanctioned. 

These  great  objects  can  be  put  into  a  single  sentence. 
What  we  seek  is  the  reign  of  law,  based  upon  the  consent 
of  the  governed  and  sustained  by  the  organized  opinion  of 
mankind. 

These  great  ends  cannot  be  achieved  by  debating  and 
seeking  to  reconcile  and  accommodate  what  statesmen  may 
wish,  with  their  projects  for  balances  of  power  and  of 
national  opportunity.  They  can  be  realized  only  by  the 
determination  of  what  the  thinking  peoples  of  the  world 
desire,  with  their  longing  hope  for  justice  and  for  social 
freedom  and  opportunity. 

I  can  fancy  that  the  air  of  this  place  carries  the  accents 
of  such  principles  with  a  peculiar  kindness.  Here  were 
started  forces  which  the  great  nation  against  which  they 
were  primarily  directed  at  first  regarded  as  a  revolt  against 
its  rightful  authority  but  which  it  has  long  since  seen  to 
have  been  a  step  in  the  liberation  of  its  own  people  as  well 
as  of  the  people  of  the  United  States ;  and  I  stand  here  now 
to  speak — speak  proudly  and  with  confident  hope — of  the 
spread  of  this  revolt,  this  liberation,  to  the  great  stage  of 
the  world  itself !  The  blinded  rulers  of  Prussia  have  roused 
forces  they  knew  little  of — forces  which,  once  roused,  can 
never  be  crushed  to  earth  again;  for  they  have  at  their 
heart  an  inspiration  and  a  purpose  which  are  deathless  and 
of  the  very  stuff  of  triumph ! 


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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 
AN  INDEPENDENCE  DAY  MESSAGE 

(Read  by  "Four-Minute"  Orators  in  more  than  Five  Thou 
sand  Communities,  on  July  4,  1918.) 

You  are  met,  my  fellow-citizens,  to  commemorate  the 
signing  of  that  Declaration  of  Independence  which  marked 
the  awakening  of  a  new  spirit  in  the  lives  of  nations.  Since 
the  birth  of  our  Republic,  we  have  seen  this  spirit  grow. 
We  have  heard  the  demand  and  watched  the  struggle  for 
self-government  spread  and  triumph  among  many  peoples. 
We  have  come  to  regard  the  right  to  political  liberty  as  the 
common  right  of  humankind.  Year  after  year,  within  the 
security  of  our  borders,  we  have  continued  to  rejoice  in  the 
peaceful  increase  of  freedom  and  democracy  throughout 
the  world.  And  yet  now,  suddenly,  we  are  confronted 
with  a  menace  which  endangers  everything  that  we  have 
won  and  everything  that  the  world  has  won. 

In  all  its  old  insolence,  with  all  its  ancient  cruelty  and 
injustice,  military  autocracy  has  again  armed  itself  against 
the  pacific  hopes  of  men.  Having  suppressed  self-govern 
ment  among  its  own  people  by  an  organization  maintained 
in  part  by  falsehood  and  treachery,  it  has  set  out  to  im 
pose  its  will  upon  its  neighbors  and  upon  us.  One  by  one 
it  has  compelled  every  civilized  nation  in  the  world  either 
to  forego  its  aspirations  or  to  declare  war  in  their  defense. 
We  find  ourselves  fighting  again  for  our  national  existence. 
We  are  face  to  face  with  the  necessity  of  asserting  anew 
the  fundamental  right  of  free  men  to  make  their  own  laws 
and  choose  their  own  allegiance,  or  else  permit  humanity 
to  become  the  victim  of  a  ruthless  ambition  that  is  deter 
mined  to  destroy  what  it  cannot  master. 

Against  its  threat  the  liberty-loving  people  of  the  world 
have  risen  and  allied  themselves.  No  fear  has  deterred 
them,  and  no  bribe  of  material  well-being  has  held  them 
back.  They  have  made  sacrifices  such  as  the  world  has 


Woodrow  Wilson 

never  known  before,  and  their  resistance  in  the  face  of 
death  and  suffering  has  proved  that  the  aim  which  animates 
the  German  effort  can  never  hope  to  rule  the  spirit  of  man 
kind.  Against  the  horror  of  military  conquest,  against  the 
emptiness  of  living  in  mere  bodily  contentment,  against 
the  desolation  of  becoming  part  of  a  State  that  knows 
neither  truth  nor  honor,  the  world  has  so  revolted  that 
even  people  long  dominated  and  suppressed  by  force  have 
now  begun  to  stir  and  arm  themselves. 

Centuries  of  subjugation  have  not  destroyed  the  racial 
aspirations  of  the  many  distinct  peoples  of  eastern  Europe, 
nor  have  they  accepted  the  sordid  ideals  of  their  political 
and  military  masters.  They  have  survived  the  slow  perse 
cutions  of  peace  as  well  as  the  agonies  of  war  and  now  de 
mand  recognition  for  their  just  claims  to  autonomy  and 
self-government.  Representatives  of  these  races  are  with 
you  to-day,  voicing  their  loyalty  to  our  ideals  and  offering 
their  services  in  the  common  cause.  I  ask  you,  fellow- 
citizens,  to  unite  with  them  in  making  this  our  Independ 
ence  Day  the  first  that  shall  be  consecrated  to  a  declaration 
of  independence  ft>r  all  the  peoples  of  the  world. 


PROCLAMATION    PLACING    TELEGRAPH    AND    TELEPHONE 

SYSTEMS    UNDER    GOVERNMENT    CONTROL 

JULY  22,   1918 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  For  many  years  there  had  been  ad 
vocates  of  Government  operation  and  control,  if  not  owner 
ship,  of  the  telegraph  and  telephone  systems  of  the  country; 
but  the  proposal  had  lacked  support  both  in  Congress  and 
among  the  people.  As  a  war  measure,  however  (and  fol 
lowing  Government  operation  of  the  railroads),  it  quickly 
became  an  accomplished  fact  when  a  threatened  strike  of 
telegraphers  seemed  likely  to  interfere  with  efficient  "wire" 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

service.  In  both  branches  of  Congress  there  were  only 
twenty  votes  in  opposition  to  a  resolution  empowering  the 
President  to  take  over  the  telegraph  and  telephone  systems, 
for  the  duration  of  the  war,  whenever  he  deemed  it  neces 
sary.  The  measure  was  signed  on  July  16,  and  six  days 
later  the  President  isued  the  following  proclamation,  assum- 
suming  control  through  the  Postmaster  General:] 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

A     PROCLAMATION 

Whereas,  The  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  the  ex 
ercise  of  the  constitutional  authority  vested  in  them,  by 
joint  resolution  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
bearing  date  July  16,  1918,  resolved: 

That  the  President,  during  the  continuance  of  the  present  war, 
is  authorized  and  empowered,  whenever  he  shall  deem  it  necessary 
for  the  national  security  or  defense,  to  supervise  or  to  take  posses 
sion  and  assume  control  of  any  telegraph,  telephone,  marine  cable, 
or  radio  system  or  systems,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  to  operate  the 
same  in  such  manner  as  may  be  needful  or  desirable  for  the  dura 
tion  of  the  war,  which  supervision,  possession,  control,  or  operation 
shall  not  extend  beyond  the  date  of  the  proclamation  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  exchange  of  ratifications  of  the  treaty  of  peace:  Pro 
vided,  that  just  compensation  shall  be  made  for  such  supervision, 
possession,  control,  or  operation,  to  be  determined  by  the  Presi 
dent;  and  if  the  amount  thereof,  so  determined  by  the  President, 
is  unsatisfactory  to  the  person  entitled  to  receive  the  same,  such 
person  shall  be  paid  75  per  centum  of  the  amount  so  determined 
by  the  President  and  shall  be  entitled  to  sue  the  United  States 
to  recover  such  further  sum  as,  added  to  said  75  per  centum,  will 
make  up  such  amount  as  will  be  just  compensation  therefor,  in 
the  manner  provided  for  by  Section  24,  Paragraph  20,  and  Sec 
tion  145  of  the  Judicial  Code:  Provided,  further,  that  nothing 
in  this  Act  shall  be  construed  to  amend  repeal,  impair,  or  affect 
existing  laws  or  powers  of  the  States  in  relation  to  taxation  or 
the  lawful  police  regulations  of  the  several  States  except  wherein 
such  laws,  powers  or  regulations  may  affect  the  transmission  of 
Government  communications  or  the  issue  of  stocks  and  bonds  by 
such  system  or  systems. 

And,  whereas,  It  is  deemed  necessary  for  the  national 
security  and  defense  to  supervise  and  to  take  possession 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

and  assume  control  of  all  telegraph  and  telephone  systems 
and  to  operate  the  same  in  such  manner  as  may  be  needful 
or  desirable: 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States,  under  and  by  virtue  of  the  powers  vested 
in  me  by  the  foregoing  resolution,  and  by  virtue  of  all  other 
powers  thereto  me  enabling,  do  hereby  take  possession  and 
assume  control  and  supervision  of  each  and  every  telegraph 
and  telephone  system,  and  every  part  thereof,  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  including  all  equipment 
thereof  and  appurtenances  thereto  whatsoever  and  all  ma 
terials  and  supplies. 

It  is  hereby  directed  that  the  supervision,  possession, 
control  and  operation  of  such  telegraph  and  telephone  sys 
tems  hereby  by  me  undertaken  shall  be  exercised  by  and 
through  the  Postmaster  General,  Albert  S.  Burleson.  Said 
Postmaster  General  may  perform  the  duties  hereby  and 
hereunder  imposed  upon  him,  so  long  and  to  such  extent 
and  in  such  manner  as  he  shall  determine,  through  the 
owners,  managers,  boards  of  directors,  receivers,  officers, 
and  employees  of  said  telegraph  and  telephone  systems. 

Until  and  except  so  far  as  said  Postmaster  General  shall 
from  time  to  time  by  general  or  special  orders  otherwise 
provide,  the  owners,  managers,  boards  of  directors,  receiv 
ers,  officers  and  employees  of  the  various  telegraph  and 
telephone  systems  shall  continue  the  operation  thereof  in 
the  usual  and  ordinary  course  of  the  business  of  said  sys 
tems,  in  the  names  of  their  respective  companies,  associa 
tions,  organizations,  owners,  or  managers,  as  the  case 
may  be. 

Regular  dividends  hitherto  declared,  and  maturing  inter 
est  upon  bonds,  debentures,  and  other  obligations  may  be 
paid  in  due  course ;  and  such  regular  dividends  and  interest 
may  continue  to  be  paid  until  and  unless  the  said  Postmas 
ter  General  shall,  from  time  to  time,  otherwise  by  general 
or  special  orders  determine,  and,  subject  to  the  approval  of 

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Presidential  Messages ,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

said  Postmaster  General,  the  various  telegraph  and  tele 
phone  systems  may  determine  upon  and  arrange  for  the 
renewal  and  extension  of  maturing  obligations. 

By  subsequent  order  of  said  Postmaster  General  super 
vision,  possession,  control,  or  operation,  may  be  relinquished 
in  whole  or  in  part  to  the  owners  thereof  of  any  telegraph 
or  telephone  system  or  any  part  thereof  supervision,  pos 
session,  control,  or  operation  of  which  is  hereby  assumed 
or  which  may  be  subsequently  assumed  in  whole  or  in  part 
hereunder. 

From  and  after  12  o'clock  midnight  on  the  31st  day  of 
July,  1918,  all  telegraph  and  telephone  systems  included 
in  this  order  and  proclamation  shall  conclusively  be  deemed 
within  the  possession  and  control  and  under  the  supervision 
of  said  Postmaster  General  without  further  act  or  notice. 

IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  I  have  hereunto;  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  by  the  President,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  this  22d  day 
of  July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1918,  and  of  the  independence 
of  the  United  States  the  143d. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 
By  the  President: 
FRANK  L.  POLK, 

Acting  Secretary  of  State. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  DENUNCIATION  OF  LYNCHINOS 
AND  THE  MOB  SPIRIT 

JULY  26,  1918 
My  Fellow  Countrymen: 

I  take  the  liberty  of  addressing  you  upon  a  subject  which 
so  vitally  affects  the  honor  of  the  nation  and  the  very  char 
acter  and  integrity  of  our  institutions  that  I  trust  you  will 
think  me  justified  in  speaking  very  plainly  about  it. 

I  allude  to  the  mob  spirit  which  has  recently  here  and 
there  very  frequently  shown  its  head  amongst  us,  not  in 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

any  single  region,  but  in  many  and  widely  separated  parts 
of  the  country.  There  have  been  many  lynchings,  and 
every  one  of  them  has  been  a  blow  at  the  heart  of  ordered 
law  and  humane  justice.  No  man  who  loves  America,  no 
man  who  really  cares  for  her  fame  and  honor  and  character, 
or  who  is  truly  loyal  to  her  institutions,  can  justify  mob 
action  while  the  courts  of  justice  are  open  and  the  govern 
ments  of  the  States  and  the  nation  are  ready  and  able  to  do 
their  duty.  We  are  at  this  very  moment  fighting  lawless 
passion.  Germany  has  outlawed  herself  among  the  nations 
because  she  has  disregarded  the  sacred  obligations  of  law 
and  has  made  lynchers  of  her  armies.  Lynchers  emulate 
her  disgraceful  example.  I,  for  my  part,  am  anxious  to 
see  every  community  in  America  rise  above  that  level  with 
pride  and  a  fixed  resolution  which  no  man  or  set  of  men 
can  afford  to  despise. 

We  proudly  claim  to  be  the  champions  of  democracy.  If 
we  really  are,  in  deed  and  in  truth,  let  us  see  to  it  that  we 
do  not  discredit  our  own.  I  say  plainly  that  every  Ameri 
can  who  takes  part  in  the  action  of  a  mob  or  gives  it  any 
sort  of  countenance  is  no  true  son  of  this  great  democracy, 
but  its  betrayer,  and  does  more  to  discredit  her  by  that 
single  disloyalty  to  her  standards  of  law  and  of  right  than 
the  words  of  her  statesmen  or  the  sacrifices  of  her  heroic 
boys  in  the  trenches  can  do  to  make  suffering  peoples  be 
lieve  her  to  be  their  savior.  How  shall  we  commend  dem 
ocracy  to  the  acceptance  of  other  peoples,  if  we  disgrace 
our  own  by  proving  that  it  is,  after  all,  no  protection  to  the 
weak?  Every  mob  contributes  to  German  lies  about  the 
United  States  what  her  most  gifted  liars  can  not  improve 
upon  by  the  way  of  calumny.  They  can  at  least  say  that 
such  things  can  not  happen  in  Germany  except  in  times  of 
revolution,  when  law  is  swept  away! 

I  therefore  very  earnestly  and  solemnly  beg  that  the 
governors  of  all  the  States,  the  law  officers  of  every  com 
munity,  and,  above  all,  the  men  and  women  of  every  com- 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Paper  t 

raunity  in  the  United  States,  all  who  revere  America  and 
wish  to  keep  her  name  without  stain  or  reproach,  will 
cooperate — not  passively  merely,  but  actively  and  watch 
fully — to  make  an  end  of  this  disgraceful  evil.  It  can  not 
live  where  the  community  does  not  countenance  it. 

I  have  called  upon  the  Nation  to  put  its  great  energy 
into  this  war  and  it  has  responded — responded  with  a 
spirit  and  a  genius  for  action  that  has  thrilled  the  world. 
I  now  call  upon  it,  upon  its  men  and  women  everywhere,  to 
see  to  it  that  its  laws  are  kept  inviolate,  its  fame  untar 
nished.  Let  us  show  our  utter  contempt  for  the  things  that 
have  made  this  war  hideous  among  the  wars  of  history  by 
showing  how  those  who  love  liberty  and  right  and  justice 
and  are  willing  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  them  upon  for 
eign  fields  stand  ready  also  to  illustrate  to  all  mankind 
their  loyalty  to  the  things  at  home  which  they  wish  to  see 
established  everywhere  as  a  blessing  and  protection  to  the 
peoples  who  have  never  known  the  privileges  of  liberty  and 
self-government.  I  can  never  accept  any  man  as  a  cham 
pion  of  liberty,  either  for  ourselves  or  for  the  world,  who 
does  not  reverence  and  obey  the  laws  of  our  own  beloved 
land,  whose  laws  we  ourselves  have  made.  He  has  adopted 
the  standards  of  the  enemies  of  his  country,  whom  he  af 
fects  to  despise. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


THE   PRESIDENT  APPEALS  TO  ALL   PERSONS   ENGAGED  IN 
COAL  MINING,  FOR  NEW  EFFORT  TO  INCREASE  OUTPUT 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  9  August,  1918. 
To  All  Those  Engaged  in  Coal  Mining: 

The  existing  scarcity  of  coal  is  creating  a  grave  danger 
— in  fact,  the  most  serious  which  confronts  us — and  calls 
for  prompt  and  vigorous  action  on  the  part  of  both  opera- 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

tors  and  miners.  Without  an  adequate  supply  our  war 
program  will  be  retarded;  the  effectiveness  of  our  fighting 
forces  in  France  will  be  lessened; , the  lives  of  our  soldiers 
will  be  unnecessarily  endangered  and  their  hardships  in 
creased,  and  there  will  be  much  suffering  in  many  homes 
throughout  the  country  during  the  coming  winter. 

I  am  well  aware  that  your  ranks  have  been  seriously  de 
pleted  by  the  draft,  by  voluntary  enlistment,  and  by  the 
demands  of  other  essential  industries.  This  handicap  can 
be  overcome,  however,  and  sufficient  coal  can  be  mined  in 
spite  of  it  if  every  one  connected  with  the  industry,  from 
the  highest  official  to  the  youngest  boy,  will  give  his  best 
work  each  day  for  the  full  number  of  work  hours.  The 
operators  must  be  zealous  as  never  before  to  bring  about 
the  highest  efficiency  of  management,  to  establish  the  best 
possible  working  conditions,  and  to  accord  fair  treatment 
to  everybody,  so  that  the  opportunity  to  work  at  his  best 
may  be  accorded  every  workman.  The  miners  should  re 
port  for  work  every  day,  unless  prevented  by  unavoidable 
causes,  and  should  not  only  stay  in  the  mines  the  full  time, 
but  also  see  to  it  that  they  get  more  coal  than  ever  before. 

The  other  workers  in  and  about  the  mines  should  work  as 
regularly  and  faithfully,  so  that  the  work  of  the  miner  may 
not  be  retarded  in  any  way.  This  will  be  especially  neces 
sary  from  this  time  forward,  for  your  numbers  may  be  fur 
ther  lessened  by  the  draft,  which  will  induct  into  the  Army 
your  fair  share  of  those  not  essential  to  industry.  Those 
who  are  drafted  but  who  are  essential  will  be  given  deferred 
classification,  and  it  is  their  patriotic  duty  to  accept  it. 
And  it  is  the  patriotic  duty  of  their  friends  and  neighbors 
to  hold  them  in  high  regard  for  doing  so.  The  only  worker 
who  deserves  the  condemnation  of  his  community  is  the  one 
who  fails  to  give  his  best  in  this  crisis;  not  the  one  who 
accepts  deferred  classification  and  works  regularly  and  dili 
gently  to  increase  the  coal  output.  A  great  task  is  to  be 
performed. 


Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

The  operators  and  their  staffs  alone  can  not  do  it,  nor 
can  the  mine  workers  alone  do  it;  but  both  parties,  working 
hand  in  hand  with  a  grim  determination  to  rid  the  country 
of  its  greatest  obstacle  to  winning  the  war,  can  do  it.  It  is 
with  full  confidence  that  I  call  upon  you  to  assume  the 
burden  of  producing  an  ample  supply  of  coal.  You  will, 
I  am  sure,  accept  this  burden  and  will  successfully  carry 
it  through  and  in  so  doing  you  will  be  performing  a  service 
just  as  worthy  as  service  in  the  trenches,  and  will  win  the 
applause  and  gratitude  of  the  whole  nation. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


PROCLAMATION   OF   THE   NEW  SELECTIVE   DRAFT  ACT 
AUGUST  31,  1918 

[The  Government  at  Washington  proposed  to  create  an  army  of 
five  million  men  by  the  summer  of  1919.  Already  there  were 
1,500,000  American  soldiers  in  France,  with  as  many  more  in  home 
training  camps.  The  Selective  Draft  Act  of  May,  1917 — see  page 
395 — had  applied  to  men  over  twenty-one  and  under  thirty-one. 
To  meet  the  enlarged  program,  Congress  amended  the  act  to  in 
clude  "all  male  persons  who  shall  have  attained  their  eighteenth 
birthday  and  who  shall  not  have  attained  their  forty-sixth  birth 
day  on  September  12,  1918."  The  President  signed  and  pro 
claimed  this  revised  act  on  August  31.  After  quoting  extensively 
from  the  measure  and  giving  detailed  instructions  regarding  reg 
istration,  the  proclamation  ended  with  the  following  explanatory 
statement:] 

Fifteen  months  ago  the  men  of  the  country  from  twenty- 
one  to  thirty  years  of  age  were  registered.  Three  months 
ago,  and  again  this  month,  those  who  have  just  reached 
the  age  of  twenty-one  were  added.  It  now  remains  to  in 
clude  all  men  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five. 

This  is  not  a  new  policy.  A  century  and  a  quarter  ago 
it  was  deliberately  ordained  by  those  who  were  then  respon 
sible  for  the  safety  and  defense  of  the  Nation  that  the  duty 
of  military  service  should  rest  upon  all  able-bodied  men 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five.  We  now  ac 
cept  and  fulfill  the  obligation  which  they  established,  an 
obligation  expressed  in  our  national  statutes  from  that  time 
until  now.  We  solemnly  purpose  a  decisive  victory  of  arms 
and  deliberately  to  devote  the  larger  part  of  the  military 
man  power  of  the  Nation  to  the  accomplishment  of  that 
purpose. 

The  younger  men  have  from  the  first  been  ready  to  go. 
They  have  furnished  voluntary  enlistments  out  of  all  pro 
portion  to  their  numbers.  Our  military  authorities  regard 
them  as  having  the  highest  combatant  qualities.  Their 
youthful  enthusiasm,  their  virile  eagerness,  their  gallant 
spirit  of  daring  make  them  the  admiration  of  all  who  see 
them  in  action.  They  covet  not  only  the  distinction  of 
serving  in  this  great  war,  but  also  the  inspiring  memories 
which  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  will  cherish  through 
the  years  to  come,  of  a  great  duty  and  a  great  service  for 
their  country  and  for  mankind. 

By  the  men  of  the  older  group  now  called  upon,  the  op 
portunity  now  opened  to  them  will  be  accepted  with  the 
calm  resolution  of  those  who  realize  to  the  full  the  deep 
and  solemn  significance  of  what  they  do.  Having  made  a 
place  for  themselves  in  their  respective  communities,  having 
assumed  at  home  the  graver  responsibilities  of  life  in  many 
spheres,  looking  back  upon  honorable  records  in  civil  and 
industrial  life,  they  will  realize  as  perhaps  no  others  could 
how  entirely  their  own  fortunes  and  the  fortunes  of  all 
whom  they  love  are  put  at  stake  in  this  war  for  right,  and 
will  know  that  the  very  records  they  have  made  render 
this  new  duty  the  commanding  duty  of  their  lives.  They 
know  how  surely  this  is  the  Nation's  war,  how  imperatively 
it  demands  the  mobilization  and  massing  of  all  our  resources 
of  every  kind.  They  will  regard  this  call  as  the  supreme 
call  of  their  day  and  will  answer  it  accordingly. 

Only  a  portion  of  those  who  register  will  be  called  upon 
to  bear  arms.  Those  who  are  not  physically  fit  will  be 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

excused;  those  exempted  by  alien  allegiance;  those  who 
should  not  be  relieved  of  their  present  responsibilities; 
above  all,  those  who  can  not  be  spared  from  the  civil  and 
industrial  tasks  at  home  upon  which  the  success  of  our 
armies  depends  as  much  as  upon  the  fighting  at  the  front. 
But  all  must  be  registered  in  order  that  the  selection  for 
military  service  may  be  made  intelligently  and  with  full  in 
formation.  This  will  be  our  final  demonstration  of  loyalty, 
democracy,  and  the  will  to  win,  our  solemn  notice  to  all  the 
world  that  we  stand  absolutely  together  in  a  common  reso 
lution  and  purpose.  It  is  the  call  to  duty  to  which  every 
true  man  in  the  country  will  respond  with  pride  and  with 
the  consciousness  that  in  doing  so  he  plays  his  part  in 
vindication  of  a  great  cause  at  whose  summons  every  true 
heart  offers  its  supreme  service. 


THE   PRESIDENT'S  LABOR  DAY  MESSAGE  TO  WORKERS 

AND  TO  THE  NATION  AT  LARGE, 

SEPTEMBER  2,  1918 

My  Fellow  Citizens: 

Labor  Day,  1918,  is  not  like  any  Labor  Day  that  we 
have  known.  Labor  Day  was  always  deeply  significant 
with  us.  Now  it  is  supremely  significant.  Keenly  as  we 
were  aware  a  year  ago  of  the  enterprise  of  life  and  death 
upon  which  the  nation  had  embarked,  we  did  not  perceive 
its  meaning  as  clearly  as  we  do  now.  We  knew  that  we 
were  all  partners  and  must  stand  and  strive  together,  but 
we  did  not  realize  as  we  do  now  that  we  are  all  enlisted 
men,  members  of  a  single  army,  of  many  parts  and  many 
tasks,  but  commanded  by  a  single  obligation,  our  faces  set 
toward  a  single  object.  We  now  know  that  every  tool  in 
every  essential  industry  is  a  weapon,  and  a  weapon  wielded 
for  the  same  purpose  that  an  army  rifle  is  wielded — a 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

weapon  which  if  we  were  to  lay  down  no  rifle  would  be  of 
any  use. 

And  a  weapon  for  what?  What  is  the  war  for?  Why 
are  we  enlisted?  Why  should  we  be  ashamed  if  we  were 
not  enlisted  ?  At  first  it  seemed  hardly  more  than  a  war  of 
defense  against  the  military  aggression  of  Germany.  Bel 
gium  had  been  violated,  France  invaded,  and  Germany  was 
afield  again,  as  in  1870  and  1866,  to  work  out  her  ambitions 
in  Europe;  and  it  was  necessary  to  meet  her  force  with 
force.  But  it  is  clear  now  that  it  is  much  more  than  a  war 
to  alter  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe.  Germany,  it  is 
now  plain,  was  striking  at  what  free  men  everywhere  de 
sire  and  must  have — the  right  to  determine  their  own  for 
tunes,  to  insist  upon  justice,  and  to  oblige  governments  to 
act  for  them  and  not  for  the  private  and  selfish  interest  of 
a  governing  class.  It  is  a  war  to  make  the  nations  and 
peoples  of  the  world  secure  against  every  such  power  as 
the  German  autocracy  represents.  It  is  a  war  of  emanci 
pation.  Not  until  it  is  won  can  men  anywhere  live  free 
from  constant  fear  or  breathe  freely  while  they  go  about 
their  daily  tasks  and  know  that  governments  are  their  serv 
ants,  not  their  masters. 

This  is,  therefore,  the  war  of  all  wars  which  labor  should 
support  and  support  with  all  its  concentrated  power.  The 
world  can  not  be  safe,  men's  lives  can  not  be  secure,  no 
man's  rights  can  be  confidently  and  successfully  asserted 
against  the  rule  and  mastery  of  arbitrary  groups  and  spe 
cial  interests,  so  long  as  governments  like  that  which,  after 
long  premeditation,  drew  Austria  and  Germany  into  this 
war  are  permitted  to  control  the  destinies  and  the  daily  for 
tunes  of  men  and  nations,  plotting  while  honest  men  work, 
laying  the  fires  of  which  innocent  men,  women,  and  children 
are  to  be  the  fuel. 

You  know  the  nature  of  this  war.  It  is  a  war  which  in 
dustry  must  sustain.  The  army  of  laborers  at  home  is  as 
important,  as  essential,  as  the  army  of  fighting  men  in  the 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

far  fields  of  actual  battle.  And  the  laborer  is  not  only 
needed  as  much  as  the  soldier.  It  is  his  war.  The  soldier 
is  his  champion  and  representative.  To  fail  to  win  would 
be  to  imperil  everything  that  the  laborer  has  striven  for 
and  held  dear  since  freedom  first  had  its  dawn  and  his 
struggle  for  justice  began.  The  soldiers  at  the  front  know 
this.  It  steels  their  muscles  to  think  of  it.  They  are  cru 
saders.  They  are  fighting  for  no  selfish  advantage  for 
their  own  nation.  They  would  despise  anyone  who  fought 
for  the  selfish  advantage  of  any  nation.  They  are  giving 
their  lives  that  homes  everywhere,  as  well  as  the  homes  they 
love  in  America,  may  be  kept  sacred  and  safe,  and  men 
everywhere  be  free  as  they  insist  upon  being  free.  They 
are  fighting  for  the  ideals  of  their  own  land — great  ideals, 
immortal  ideals,  ideals  which  shall  light  the  way  for  all 
men  to  the  places  where  justice  is  done  and  men  live  with 
lifted  heads  an  demancipated  spirits.  That  is  the  reason 
they  fight  with  solemn  joy  and  are  invincible. 

Let  us  make  this,  therefore,  a  day  of  fresh  comprehen 
sion  not  only  of  what  we  are  about,  and  of  renewed  and 
clear-eyed  resolution,  but  a  day  of  consecration  also,  in 
which  we  devote  ourselves  without  pause  or  limit  to  the 
great  task  of  setting  our  own  country  and  the  whole  world 
free  to  render  justice  to  all  and  of  making  it  impossible 
for  small  groups  of  political  rulers  anywhere  to  disturb  our 
peace  or  the  peace  of  the  world  or  in  any  way  to  make  tools 
and  puppets  of  those  upon  whose  consent  and  upon  whose 
power  their  own  authority  and  their  own  very  existence 
depend. 

We  may  count  upon  each  other.  The  nation  is  of  a 
single  mind.  It  is  taking  counsel  with  no  special  class.  It 
is  serving  no  private  or  single  interest.  Its  own  mind  has 
been  cleared  and  fortified  by  these  days  which  burn  the 
dross  away.  The  light  of  a  new  conviction  has  penetrated 
to  every  class  amongst  us.  We  realize  as  we  never  realized 
before  that  we  are  comrades,  dependent  on  one  another, 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

irresistible  when  united,  powerless  when  divided.     And  so 
we  join  hands  to  lead  the  world  to  a  new  and  better  day. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


A  LETTER  THAT  ENDED  A  MACHINISTS'  STRIKE 

[Arbitration  had  been  accepted,  but  the  men  refused  to  abide 
by  the  award.  The  President  here  again — see  earlier  instances  on 
page  484 — declines  to  permit  interruption  in  war  industries.  The 
striking  machinists  were  employed  in  Bridgeport,  the  great  mu 
nition  center.  The  letter  was  addressed  to  District  Lodge  No.  55, 
International  Association  of  Machinists,  Bridgeport,  Conn.] 

Washington,  September   13,   1918. 
Gentlemen: 

I  am  in  receipt  of  your  resolutions  of  September  6  an 
nouncing  that  you  have  begun  a  strike  against  your  em 
ployers  in  Bridgeport,  Conn.  You  are  members  of  the 
Bridgeport  branches  of  the  International  Union  of  Ma 
chinists.  As  such,  and  with  the  approval  of  the  national 
officers  of  your  union,  you  signed  an  agreement  to  submit 
the  questions  as  to  the  terms  of  your  employment  to  the 
National  War  Labor  Board,  and  to  abide  the  award,  which 
in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  procedure  approved  by  me 
might  be  made. 

The  members  of  the  board  were  not  able  to  reach  a 
unanimous  conclusion  on  all  the  issues  presented,  and  as 
provided  in  its  constitution  the  questions  upon  which  they 
did  not  agree  were  carried  before  an  arbitrator,  the  unani 
mous  choice  of  the  members  of  the  board. 

The  arbitrator  thus  chosen  has  made  an  award  which 
more  than  90  per  cent,  of  the  workers  affected  accept. 
You  who  constitute  less  than  10  per  cent,  refuse  to  abide 
the  award,  although  you  are  the  best  paid  of  the  whole 
body  of  workers  affected,  and  are,  therefore,  at  least  entitled 
to  press  a  further  increase  of  wages  because  of  the  high 
cost  of  living.  But,  whatever  the  merits  of  the  issue,  it  is 
closed  by  the  award.  Your  strike  against  it  is  a  breach  of 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

faith  calculated  to  reflect  on  the  sincerity  of  national  or 
ganized  labor  in  proclaiming  its  acceptance  of  the  principles 
and  machinery  of  the  National  War  Labor  Board. 

If  such  disregard  of  the  solemn  adjudication  of  a  tribunal 
to  which  both  parties  submitted  their  claims  be  temporized 
with,  agreements  become  mere  scraps  of  paper.  If  errors 
creep  into  awards,  the  proper  remedy  is  submission  to  the 
award  with  an  application  for  rehearing  to  the  tribunal. 
But  to  strike  against  the  award  is  disloyalty  and  dishonor. 

The  Smith  &  Wesson  Company,  of  Springfield,  Mass., 
engaged  in  Government  work,  has  refused  to  accept  the 
mediation  of  the  National  War  Labor  Board  and  has 
flaunted  its  rules  of  decision  approved  by  Presidential  proc 
lamation.  With  my  consent  the  War  Department  has  taken 
over  the  plant  and  business  of  the  company  to  secure  con 
tinuity  in  production  and  to  prevent  industrial  disturbance. 

It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  secure  compliance  with 
reasonable  rules  and  procedure  for  the  settlement  of  in 
dustrial  disputes.  Having  exercised  a  drastic  remedy  with 
recalcitrant  employers,  it  is  my  duty  to  use  means  equally 
well  adapted  to  the  end  with  lawless  and  faithless  em 
ployees. 

Therefore,  I  desire  that  you  return  to  work  and  abide 
by  the  award.  If  you  refuse,  each  of  you  will  be  barred 
from  employment  in  any  war  industry  in  the  community  in 
which  the  strike  occurs  for  a  period  of  one  year.  During 
that  time  the  United  States  Employment  Service  will  de 
cline  to  obtain  employment  for  you  in  any  war  industry 
elsewhere  in  the  United  States,  as  well  as  under  the  War 
and  Navy  Departments,  the  Shipping  Board,  the  Rail 
road  Administration,  and  all  other  Government  agencies, 
and  the  draft  boards  will  be  instructed  to  reject  any  claim 
of  exemption  based  on  your  alleged  usefulness  on  war 
production. 

Sincerely  yours, 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

PROCLAMATION  FORBIDDING  THE  USE  OF  FOODSTUFFS  IN  THE 

PRODUCTION  OF  MALT  LIQUORS 

SEPTEMBER  16,  1918 

(^Prohibition  was  fast  becoming  an  accomplished  fact  through 
out  the  land.  The  movement  for  State-wide  prohibition  had  not 
ceased,  and  exactly  half  of  the  States  were  "dry"  by  mandate  of 
the  voters.  The  prohibition  amendment  to  the  federal  Constitu 
tion  had  been  ratified  by  the  legislatures  of  fourteen  States  within 
eight  months.  The  manufacture  of  whiskey  had  been  forbidden 
by  Congress,  as  also  had  the  sale  of  liquor  after  June  30,  1919. 
And  in  the  following  proclamation  the  President  exercises  power 
conferred  on  him  by  Congress  to  prohibit  the  use  of  food  mate 
rials  in  the  manufacture  of  beer,  thus  closing  all  breweries  after 
December  1,  1918.] 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America: 

A    PROCLAMATION 

Whereas,  Under  and  by  virtue  of  an  act  of  Congress 
entitled  "An  act  to  provide  further  for  the  national  security 
and  defense  by  encouraging  the  production,  conserving  the 
supply,  and  controlling  the  distribution  of  food  products 
and  fuel,"  approved  by  the  President  on  August  10,  1917, 
it  is  provided  in  section  15,  among  other  things,  as  follows: 

Whenever  the  President  shall  find  that  limitation,  regulation,  or 
prohibition  of  the  use  of  foods,  fruits,  food  materials,  or  feeds  in 
the  production  of  malt  or  vinous  liquors  for  beverage  purposes,  or 
that  reduction  of  the  alcoholic  content  of  any  such  malt  or  vinous 
liquors,  is  essential,  in  order  to  assure  an  adequate  and  continuous 
supply  of  food,  or  that  the  national  security  and  defense  will  be 
subserved  thereby,  he  is  authorized,  from  time  to  time,  to  pre 
scribe  and  give  public  notice  of  the  extent  of  the  limitation,  regu 
lation,  prohibition,  or  reduction  so  necessitated.  Whenever  such 
notice  shall  have  been  given  and  shall  remain  unrevoked,  no  per 
son  shall,  after  a  reasonable  time  prescribed  in  such  notice,  use 
any  foods,  fruits,  food  materials,  or  feeds  in  the  production  of 
malt  or  vinous  liquors,  or  import  any  such  liquors  except  under 
license  issued  by  the  President  and  in  compliance  with  rules  and 
regulations  determined  by  him  governing  the  production  and  im 
portation  of  such  liquors  and  the  alcoholic  content  thereof. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America^  by  virtue  of  the  powers  conferred 

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Presidential  Messages,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

on  me  by  said  act  of  Congress,  do  hereby  find  and  deter 
mine  that  it  is  essential,  in  order  to  assure  an  adequate  and 
continuous  supply  of  food,  in  order  to  subserve  the  national 
security  and  defense,  and  because  of  the  increasing  re 
quirements  of  war  industries  for  the  fuel  productive  capac 
ity  of  the  country,  the  strain  upon  transportation  to  serve 
such  industries,  and  the  shortage  of  labor  caused  by  the 
necessity  of  increasing  the  armed  forces  of  the  United 
States,  that  the  use  of  sugar,  glucose,  corn,  rice,  or  any 
other  foods,  fruits,  food  materials,  and  feeds  in  the  pro 
duction  of  malt  liquors,  including  near  beer,  for  beverage 
purposes  be  prohibited.  And  by  this  proclamation  I  pre 
scribe  and  give  public  notice  that  on  and  after  October  1, 
1918,  no  person  shall  use  any  sugar,  glucose,  corn,  rice,  or 
any  other  foods,  fruits,  food  materials,  or  feeds,  except 
malt  now  already  made,  and  hops,  in  the  production  of 
malt  liquors,  including  near  beer,  for  beverage  purposes, 
.whether  or  not  such  malt  liquors  contain  alcohol;  and  on 
and  after  December  1,  1918,  no  person  shall  use  any  sugar^ 
glucose,  corn,  rice,  or  any  other  foods,  fruits,  food  mate 
rials,  or  feeds,  including  malt,  in  the  production  of  malt 
liquors,  including  near  beer,  for  beverage  purposes,  whether 
or  not  such  malt  liquors  contain  alcohol. 

IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  this  sixteenth  day  of  Septem 
ber  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
eighteen,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica  the  one  hundred  and  forty-third. 

[SEAL]  WOODROW  WILSON. 

By  the  President: 
ROBERT  LANSING, 

Secretary  of  State. 


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Woodrow  Wilson 

AN  ENDORSEMENT  OF  THE  FOURTH  LIBERTY  LOAN 
OCTOBER,    1918 

[EDITORIAL  NOTE:  The  Government  was  facing  an  esti 
mated  annual  war  expenditure  of  $2  4)000,000, 000,  only 
one-third  of  which  could  be  raised  by  taxation.  The  re 
mainder  must  be  borrowed.  The  first  Liberty  Loan  (June, 
1917)  yielded  $2,000,000,000;  the  second  (October,  1917), 
$3,808,766,150;  the  third  (April-May,  1918),  $4,176,516,- 
000.  This  fourth  Liberty  Loan  was  offered  during  Octo 
ber,  1918,  and  $6,000,000,000  was  asked.  Following  is  a 
message  from  the  President  to  the  people:] 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

Again  the  Government  comes  to  the  people  of  the  country 
with  the  request  that  they  lend  their  money,  and  lend  it 
upon  a  more  liberal  scale  than  ever  before,  in  order  that 
the  great  war  for  the  rights  of  America  and  the  liberation 
of  the  world  may  be  prosecuted  with  ever-increasing  vigor 
to  a  victorious  conclusion.  And  it  makes  the  appeal  with 
the  greatest  confidence  because  it  knows  that  every  day  it 
is  becoming  clearer  and  clearer  to  thinking  men  throughout 
the  nation  that  the  winning  of  the  war  is  an  essential  in 
vestment.  The  money  that  is  held  back  now  will  be  of  lit 
tle  use  or  value  if  the  war  is  not  won  and  the  selfish  mas 
ters  of  Germany  are  permitted  to  dictate  what  America 
may  and  may  not  do.  Men  in  America,  besides,  have  from 
the  first  until  now  dedicated  both  their  lives  and  their  for 
tunes  to  the  vindication  and  maintenance  of  the  great  prin 
ciples  and  objects  for  which  our  Government  was  set  up. 
They  will  not  fail  now  to  show  the  world  for  what  their 
wealth  was  intended. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


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PRESIDENT   WILSON'S   ADDRESS   OPENING   THE    NEW   YORK 

CAMPAIGN  FOR  THE   FOURTH  LIBERTY  LOAN 

SEPTEMBER  21,   1918 

[The  President  spoke  not  of  the  Government's  appeal  for  a  loan 
of  six  billion  dollars,  but  rather  of  the  peace  that  must  come  out 
of  the  great  struggle  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe.  For  more 
than  two  months  the  Allies — reinforced  by  ever-increasing  num 
bers  of  American  troops — had  been  steadily  pushing  back  the 
German  line  in  France  and  Belgium,  with  excursions  in  Palestine 
and  Macedonia  that  had  shattered  the  Turkish  army  and  forced 
Bulgaria  to  lay  down  her  arms.] 

My  Fellow  Citizens: 

I  am  not  here  to  promote  the  loan.  That  will  be  done 
— ably  and  enthusiastically  done — by  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  loyal  and  tireless  men  and  women  who  have 
undertaken  to  present  it  to  you  and  to  our  fellow  citizens 
throughout  the  country;  and  I  have  not  the  least  doubt 
of  their  complete  success;  for  I  know  their  spirit  and  the 
spirit  of  the  country.  My  confidence  is  confirmed,  too,  by 
the  thoughtful  and  experienced  cooperation  of  the  bankers 
here  and  everywhere,  who  are  lending  their  invaluable  aid 
and  guidance.  I  have  come,  rather,  to  seek  an  opportunity 
to  present  to  you  some  thoughts  which  I  trust  will  serve 
to  give  you,  in  perhaps  fuller  measure  than  before,  a  vivid 
sense  of  the  great  issues  involved,  in  order  that  you  may 
appreciate  and  accept  with  added  enthusiasm  the  grave 
significance  of  the  duty  of  supporting  the  Government  by 
your  men  and  your  means  to  the  utmost  point  of  sacrifice 
and  self-denial.  No  man  or  woman  who  has  really  taken 
in  what  this  war  means  can  hesitate  to  give  to  the  very 
limit  of  what  they  have;  and  it  is  my  mission  here  to 
night  to  try  to  make  it  clear  once  more  what  the  war 
really  means.  You  will  need  no  other  stimulation  or  re 
minder  of  your  duty. 

At  every  turn  of  the  war  we  gain  a  fresh  consciousness 
of  what  we  mean  to  accomplish  by  it.  When  our  hope  and 
expectation  are  most  excited  we  think  more  definitely  than 


Woodrow   Wilson 

before  of  the  issues  that  hang  upon  it  and  of  the  purposes 
which  must  be  realized  by  means  of  it.  For  it  has  positive 
and  well-defined  purposes  which  we  did  not  determine  and 
which  we  can  not  alter.  No  statesman  or  assembly  cre 
ated  them ;  no  statesman  or  assembly  can  alter  them.  They 
have  arisen  out  of  the  very  nature  and  circumstances  of  the 
war.  The  most  that  statesmen  or  assemblies  can  do  is  to 
carry  them  out  or  be  false  to  them.  They  were  perhaps  not 
clear  at  the  outset;  but  they  are  clear  now.  The  war  has 
lasted  more  than  four  years  and  the  whole  world  has  been 
drawn  into  it.  The  common  will  of  mankind  has  been 
substituted  for  the  particular  purposes  of  individual  states. 
Individual  statesmen  may  have  started  the  conflict,  but 
neither  they  nor  their  opponents  can  stop  it  as  they  please. 
It  has  become  a  people's  war,  and  peoples  of  all  sorts 
and  races,  of  every  degree  of  power  and  variety  of  for 
tune,  are  involved  in  its  sweeping  processes  of  change  and 
settlement.  We  came  into  it  when  its  character  had  be 
come  fully  defined  and  it  was  plain  that  no  nation  could 
stand  apart  or  be  indifferent  to  its  outcome.  Its  challenge 
drove  to  the  heart  of  everything  we  cared  for  and  lived  for. 
The  voice  of  the  war  had  become  clear  and  gripped  our 
hearts.  Our  brothers  from  many  lands,  as  well  as  our  own 
murdered  dead  under  the  sea,  were  calling  to  us,  and  we 
responded,  fiercely  and  of  course. 

The  air  was  clear  about  us.  We  saw  things  in  their  full, 
convincing  proportions  as  they  were;  and  we  have  seen 
them  with  steady  eyes  and  unchanging  comprehension 
ever  since.  We  accepted  the  issues  of  the  war  as  facts,  not 
as  any  group  of  men  either  here  or  elsewhere  had  defined 
them,  and  we  can  accept  no  outcome  which  does  not  squarely 
meet  and  settle  them.  Those  issues  are  these: 

Shall  the  military  power  of  any  nation  or  group  of  na 
tions  be  suffered  to  determine  the  fortunes  of  peoples  over 
whom  they  have  no  right  to  rule  except  the  right  of  force? 

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Shall  strong  nations  be  free  to  wrong  weak  nations  and 
make  them  subject  to  their  purpose  and  interest? 

Shall  peoples  be  ruled  and  dominated,  even  in  their  own 
internal  affairs,  by  arbitrary  and  irresponsible  force  or  by 
their  own  will  and  choice? 

Shall  there  be  a  common  standard  of  right  and  privilege 
for  all  peoples  and  nations  or  shall  the  strong  do  as  they 
will  and  the  weak  suffer  without  redress? 

Shall  the  assertion  of  right  be  haphazard  and  by  casual 
alliance  or  shall  there  be  a  common  concert  to  oblige  the 
observance  of  common  rights? 

No  man,  no  group  of  men,  chose  these  to  be  the  issues  of 
the  struggle.  They  are  the  issues  of  it;  and  they  must  be 
settled, — by  no  arrangement  or  compromise  or  adjustment 
of  interest,  but  definitely  and  once  for  all  and  with  a  full 
and  unequivocal  acceptance  of  the  principle  that  the  inter 
est  of  the  weakest  is  as  sacred  as  the  interest  of  the 
strongest. 

This  is  what  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  a  permanent 
peace,  if  we  speak  sincerely,  intelligently,  and  with  a  real 
knowledge  and  comprehension  of  the  matter  we  deal  with. 

We  are  all  agreed  that  there  can  be  no  peace  obtained 
by  any  kind  of  bargain  or  compromise  with  the  govern 
ments  of  the  Central  Empires,  because  we  have  dealt  with 
them  already  and  have  seen  them  deal  with  other  govern 
ments  that  were  parties  to  this  struggle,  at  Brest-Litovsk 
and  Bucharest.  They  have  convinced  us  that  they  are 
without  honor  and  do  not  intend  justice.  They  observe 
no  covenants,  accept  no  principle  but  force  and  their  own 
interest.  We  can  not  "come  to  terms"  with  them.  They 
have  made  it  impossible.  The  German  people  must  by  this 
time  be  fully  aware  that  we  can  not  accept  the  word  of 
those  who  forced  this  war  upon  us.  We  do  not  think  the 
same  thoughts  or  speak  the  same  language  of  agreement. 

It  is  of  capital  importance  that  we  should  also  be  ex- 


Woodrow  Wilson 

plicitly  agreed  that  no  peace  shall  be  obtained  by  any  kind 
of  compromise  or  abatement  of  the  principles  we  have 
avowed  as  the  principles  for  which  we  are  fighting.  There 
should  exist  no  doubt  about  that.  I  am,  therefore,  going 
to  take  the  liberty  of  speaking  with  the  utmost  frankness 
about  the  practical  implications  that  are  involved  in  it. 

If  it  be  in  deed  and  in  truth  the  common  object  of  the 
governments  associated  against  Germany  and  of  the  nations 
whom  they  govern,  as  I  believe  it  to  be,  to  achieve  by  the 
coming  settlements  a  secure  and  lasting  peace,  it  will  be 
Accessary  that  all  who  sit  down  at  the  peace  table  shall 
come  ready  and  willing  to  pay  the  price,  the  only  price, 
that  will  procure  it;  and  ready  and  willing,  also,  to  create 
in  some  virile  fashion  the  only  instrumentality  by  which  it 
can  be  made  certain  that  the  agreements  of  the  peace  will 
be  honored  and  fulfilled. 

That  price  is  impartial  justice  in  every  item  of  the  set 
tlement,  no  matter  whose  interest  is  crossed;  and  not  only 
impartial  justice  but  also  the  satisfaction  of  the  several 
peoples  whose  fortunes  are  dealt  with.  That  indispensable 
instrumentality  is  a  League  of  Nations  formed  under  cove 
nants  that  will  be  efficacious.  Without  such  an  instrumen 
tality,  by  which  the  peace  of  the  world  can  be  guaranteed, 
peace  will  rest  in  part  upon  the  word  of  outlaws  and  only 
upon  that  word.  For  Germany  will  have  to  redeem  her 
character,  not  by  what  happens  at  the  peace  table  but  by 
what  follows. 

And,  as  I  see  it,  the  constitution  of  that  League  of  Na 
tions  and  the  clear  definition  of  its  objects  must  be  a  part, 
is  in  a  sense  the  most  essential  part,  of  the  peace  settle 
ment  itself.  It  cannot  be  formed  now.  If  formed  now  it 
would  be  merely  a  new  alliance  confined  to  the  nations  asso 
ciated  against  a  common  enemy.  It  is  not  likely  that  it 
could  be  formed  after  the  settlement.  It  is  necessary  to 
guarantee  the  peace;  and  the  peace  can  not  be  guaranteed 
as  an  afterthought.  The  reason,  to  speak  in  plain  terms 

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again,  why  it  must  be  guaranteed  is  that  there  will  be  par 
ties  to  the  peace  whose  promises  have  proved  untrustworthy, 
and  means  must  be  found  in  connection  with  the  peace  set 
tlement  itself  to  remove  that  source  of  insecurity.  It  would 
be  folly  to  leave  the  guarantee  to  the  subsequent  voluntary 
action  of  the  Governments  we  have  seen  destroy  Russia 
and  deceive  Rumania. 

But  these  general  terms  do  not  disclose  the  whole  matter. 
Some  details  are  needed  to  make  them  sound  less  like  a 
thesis  and  more  like  a  practical  program.  These,  then,  are 
some  of  the  particulars,  and  I  state  them  with  the  greater 
confidence  because  I  can  state  them  authoritatively  as  rep 
resenting  this  Government's  interpretation  of  its  own  duty 
with  regard  to  peace: 

First,  the  impartial  justice  meted  out  must  involve  no 
discrimination  between  those  to  whom  we  wish  to  be  just 
and  those  to  whom  we  do  not  wish  to  be  just.  It  must  be  a 
justice  that  plays  no  favorites,  and  knows  no  standard  but 
the  equal  rights  of  the  several  peoples  concerned; 

Second,  no  special  or  separate  interest  of  any  single 
nation  or  any  group  of  nations  can  be  made  the  basis  of  any 
part  of  the  settlement  which  is  not  consistent  with  the 
common  interest  of  all; 

Third,  there  can  be  no  leagues  or  alliances  or  special 
covenants  and  understandings  within  the  general  and  com 
mon  family  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

Fourth,  and  more  specifically,  there  can  be  no  special, 
selfish  economic  combinations  within  the  League  and  no  em 
ployment  of  any  form  of  economic  boycott  or  exclusion  ex 
cept  as  the  power  of  economic  penalty  by  exclusion  from 
the  markets  of  the  world  may  be  vested  in  the  League  of 
Nations  itself  as  a  means  of  discipline  and  control. 

Fifth,  all  international  agreements  and  treaties  of  every 
kind  must  be  made  known  in  their  entirety  to  the  rest  of 
the  world. 


Woodrow  Wilson 

Special  alliances  and  economic  rivalries  and  hostilities 
have  been  the  prolific  source  in  the  modern  world  of  the 
plans  and  passions  that  produce  war.  It  would  be  an 
insincere  as  well  as  insecure  peace  that  did  not  exclude 
them  in  definite  and  binding  terms. 

The  confidence  with  which  I  venture  to  speak  for  our 
people  in  these  matters  does  not  spring  from  our  traditions 
merely  and  the  well-known  principles  of  international  ac 
tion  which  we  have  always  professed  and  followed.  In  the 
same  sentence  in  which  I  say  that  the  United  States  will 
enter  into  no  special  arrangements  or  understandings  with 
particular  nations  let  me  say  also  that  the  United  States  is 
prepared  to  assume  its  full  share  of  responsibility  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  common  covenants  and  understandings 
upon  which  peace  must  henceforth  rest.  We  still  read 
Washington's  immortal  warning  against  "entangling  alli 
ances"  with  full  comprehension  and  an  answering  purpose. 
But  only  special  and  limited  alliances  entangle ;  and  we  rec 
ognize  and  accept  the  duty  of  a  new  day  in  which  we  are 
permitted  to  hope  for  a  general  alliance  which  will  avoid 
entanglements  and  clear  the  air  of  the  world  for  common 
understandings  and  the  maintenance  of  common  rights. 

I  have  made  this  analysis  of  the  international  situation 
which  the  war  has  created,  not,  of  course,  because  I  doubted 
whether  the  leaders  of  the  great  nations  and  peoples  with 
whom  we  are  associated  were  of  the  same  mind  and  enter 
tained  a  like  purpose,  but  because  the  air  every  now  and 
again  gets  darkened  by  mists  and  groundless  doubtings 
and  mischievous  perversions  of  counsel  and  it  is  necessary 
once  and  again  to  sweep  all  the  irresponsible  talk  about 
peace  intrigues  and  weakening  morale  and  doubtful  pur 
pose  on  the  part  of  those  in  authority  utterly,  and  if  need 
be  unceremoniously,  aside  and  say  things  in  the  plainest 
words  that  can  be  found,  even  when  it  is  only  to  say  over 
again  what  has  been  said  before,  quite  as  plainly  if  in  less 
unvarnished  terms. 

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I 

As  I  have  said,  neither  I  nor  any  other  man  in  govern 
mental  authority  created  or  gave  form  to  the  issues  of  this 
war.  I  have  simply  responded  to  them  with  such  vision  as 
I  could  command.  But  I  have  responded  gladly  and  with 
a  resolution  that  has  grown  warmer  and  more  confident  as 
the  issues  have  grown  clearer  and  clearer.  It  is  now  plain 
that  they  are  issues  which  no  man  can  pervert  unless  it  be 
wilfully.  I  am  bound  to  fight  for  them,  and  happy  to  fight 
for  them  as  time  and  circumstance  have  revealed  them  to 
me  as  to  all  the  world.  Our  enthusiasm  for  them  grows 
more  and  more  irresistible  as  they  stand  out  in  more  and 
more  vivid  and  unmistakable  outline. 

And  the  forces  that  fight  for  them  draw  into  closer  and 
closer  array,  organize  their  millions  into  more  and  more 
unconquerable  might,  as  they  become  more  and  more  dis 
tinct  to  the  thought  and  purpose  of  the  peoples  engaged. 
It  is  the  peculiarity  of  this  great  war  that  while  statesmen 
have  seemed  to  cast  about  for  definitions  of  their  purpose 
and  have  sometimes  seemed  to  shift  their  ground  and  their 
point  of  view,  the  thought  of  the  mass  of  men,  whom  states 
men  are  supposed  to  instruct  and  lead,  has  grown  more  and 
more  unclouded,  more  and  more  certain  of  what  it  is  that 
they  are  fighting  for.  National  purposes  have  fallen  more 
and  more  into  the  background  and  the  common  purpose 
of  enlightened  mankind  has  taken  their  place.  The  coun 
sels  of  plain  men  have  become  on  all  hands  more  simple 
and  straightforward  and  more  unified  than  the  counsels  of 
sophisticated  men  of  affairs,  who  still  retain  the  impression 
that  they  are  playing  a  game  of  power  and  playing  for  high 
stakes.  That  is  why  I  have  said  that  this  is  a  peoples' 
war,  not  a  statesmen's.  Statesmen  must  follow  the  clarified 
common  thought  or  be  broken. 

I  take  that  to  be  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  assem 
blies  and  associations  of  many  kinds  made  up  of  plain 
workaday  people  have  demanded,  almost  every  time  they 
came  together,  and  are  still  demanding,  that  the  leaders  of 

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Woodrow  Wilson 

their  governments  declare  to  them  plainly  what  it  is,  ex 
actly  what  it  is,  that  they  were  seeking  in  this  war,  and 
what  they  think  the  items  of  the  final  settlement  should 
be.  They  are  not  yet  satisfied  with  what  they  have  been 
told.  They  still  seem  to  fear  that  they  are  getting  what 
they  ask  for  only  in  statesmen's  terms, — only  in  the  terms 
of  territorial  arrangements  and  divisions  of  power,  and  not 
in  terms  of  broad-visioned  justice  and  mercy  and  peace 
and  the  satisfaction  of  those  deep-seated  longings  of  op 
pressed  and  distracted  men  and  women  and  enslaved  peo 
ples  that  seem  to  them  the  only  things  worth  fighting  a  war 
for  that  engulfs  the  world.  Perhaps  statesmen  have  not 
always  recognized  this  changed  aspect  of  the  whole  world 
of  policy  and  action.  Perhaps  they  have  not  always  spo 
ken  in  direct  reply  to  the  questions  asked  because  they  did 
not  know  how  searching  those  questions  were  and  what  sort 
of  answers  they  demanded. 

But  I,  for  one,  am  glad  to  attempt  the  answer  again  and 
again,  in  the  hope  that  I  may  make  it  clearer  and  clearer 
that  my  one  thought  is  to  satisfy  those  who  struggle  in  the 
ranks  and  are,  perhaps  above  all  others,  entitled  to  a  reply 
whose  meaning  no  one  can  have  any  excuse  for  misunder 
standing,  if  he  understands  the  language  in  which  it  is  spo 
ken  or  can  get  someone  to  translate  it  correctly  into  his 
own.  And  I  believe  that  the  leaders  of  the  governments 
with  which  we  are  associated  will  speak,  as  they  have  occa 
sion,  as  plainly  as  I  have  tried  to  speak.  I  hope  that  they 
will  feel  free  to  say  whether  they  think  that  I  am  in  any 
degree  mistaken  in  my  interpretation  of  the  issues  involved 
or  in  my  purpose  with  regard  to  the  means  by  which  a 
satisfactory  settlement  of  those  issues  may  be  obtained. 
Unity  of  purpose  and  of  counsel  are  as  imperatively  nec 
essary  in  this  war  as  was  unity  of  command  in  the  battle 
field;  and  with  perfect  unity  of  purpose  and  counsel  will 
come  assurance  of  complete  victory.  It  can  be  had  in  no 
other  way.  "Peace  drives"  can  be  effectively  neutralized 

527 


Presidential  Messages ,  Addresses  and  State  Papers 

and  silenced  only  by  showing  that  every  victory  of  the  na 
tions  associated  against  Germany  brings  the  nations  nearer 
the  sort  of  peace  which  will  bring  security  and  reassurance 
to  all  peoples  and  make  the  recurrence  of  another  such 
struggle  of  pitiless  force  and  bloodshed  forever  impossible, 
and  that  nothing  else  can.  Germany  is  constantly  intimat 
ing  the  "terms"  she  will  accept;  and  always  finds  that  the 
world  does  not  want  terms.  It  wishes  the  final  triumph 
of  justice  and  fair  dealing. 


INDEX 


Acceptance  speech  (renomination), 
302 

Agricultural  credits  (See  Farm 
credits) 

Agriculture,  Department  of:  Its 
importance  to  the  world,  103 

Agriculture,  Future  development  of, 
328 

Alaska:  Railways  and  development 
planned,  45 

Alaska:  Territorial  government 
urged,  45 

Alsace-Lorraine  wrong  of  1871 
should  be  righted,  469 

America  first,  109,  175 

America,  Spirit  of,  115,  122,  127, 
211,  291 

America,  without  hampering  ambi 
tions  as  world  power,  111,  134, 
168,  199,  313 

American  Electric  Railway  Associa 
tion,  Address  before,  97 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  Ad 
dress  before,  434 

American  system  of  government, 
Balance  of,  324;  a  lawyer's  gov 
ernment,  324 

Americans,  Disloyal  ("hyphenated"), 
110,  132,  150,  293,  310 

Americans,  foreign  born,  Addresses 
to,  114,  290 

Americans,  Undivided  allegiance  of, 
110,  115,  125,  132 

Anti-trust  legislation  (See  Sherman 
Anti-trust  Law  and  Trusts  and 
Monopolies) 

Arbitration,  Failure  of,  in  railroad 
eight-hour  demand,  296 

Arbitration  law,  Suggested  changes 
in,  301;  recommendations  re 
newed,  339 

Arbitration  of  war-time  labor  dis 
putes,  515 

Arbitration  treaties;  Ratification 
urged,  38 

Army    (See   Defense,   National) 

Associated  Press,  Address  before 
members  of,  108 

Austria-Hungary;  Diplomatic  rela 
tions  interrupted,  but  peace  main 
tained,  381 

Austria-Hungary,  Diplomatic  corre 
spondence  with  (See  War) 

Austria-Hungary  must  be  delivered 
from  Prussian  domination,  447 

Austria-Hungary  must  continue  to 
have  access  to  sea,  450 


Austria-Hungary:  People  must  be 
accorded  free  opportunity  for  au 
tonomous  development,  469 

Austria-Hungary,  War  against,  ad 
vised,  451 

Austro-Hungarian  Empire  not  to  be 
rearranged  by  United  States,  447 

Aviation  (See  Defense,  National) 

B 

Bagdad  Railway,  437 

Balkan  States  controlled  by  Ger 
many,  437,  447 

Banking:  Restrictions  upon  national 
banks  in  international  trade,  279, 
289 

Banking  legislation  (See  Currency, 
also  Federal  Reserve  Bank  Sys 
tem) 

Belgium  must  be  evacuated  and  re 
stored,  469 

Benedict,  Pope,  Peace  proposal  of, 
and  reply,  421 

Brazil,  Messages  to,  on  its  entry 
into  war,  432 

Burleson,  Albert  S.,  appointed  di 
rector  of  telegraph  and  telephone 
systems,  505 

Business 

Not    to   be   penalized   because   big 

and  strong,   102 
Past  the  era  of  suspicion  and  into 

era  of  confidence,   100 
Relation  of  Government  to,   103 
Some  needs  of,   12 
Spirit    of    American    business    to 
ward  regulation,  93,  97 
(See     also     Trusts,     Trade     Com 
mission,      Corporations,      Direc 
tors,   Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law) 


Central    America    (See    Latin-Amer 
ica) 
Children,    Co-operation    of,    in    Red' 

Cross  work  proposed,  427 
"Citizenry  trained  and  accustomed 

to  arms,"   78 
Citizenship    address  at   Philadelphia, 

114;  at  Washington,  290 
Coal  production  urged,  508 
Commerce 

International    exclusive     economic 
leagues  condemned,  424 

Limitations     imposed    by    banking 
restrictions,  279,  289,  329 

New    fields    of    foreign    commerce, 
69,  106,  279,  328 


INDEX 


Proposal  to  remove  restrictions  on 
combinations   of  exporters,   316, 
333,  341,  452 
Commerce,    Bureau    of   Foreign   and 

Domestic,  Usefulness  of,  104,  316, 

330 

Confederate  Veterans,  Addresses  be 
fore,  14,  408 

Congress:    House  should  prepare  ap 
propriation     bills     through     single 

committee,   453 
Congress:     Members    and    problems 

of  early  days,  27,  31 
Congress,  Messages  to 

First  Annual,   37 

Second   Annual,   67 

Third  Annual,   133 

Fourth  Annual,   337 

Fifth  Annual,  443 

Currency  revision,  10 

German  submarine  controversy, 
262,  358,  363,  372 

German  and  Austrian  peace  ut 
terances,  472  ' 

Merchant  ships,  Arming  of,  363 

Mexico,   18,  59 

Panama  Canal  tolls,   57 

Railroad   administration,  455 

Railroad  strike  threat,  294 

Revenue,   64,   492 
,,  JTariff,   5 

jKfTrusts  and  Monopolies,  47 
\JWar  with  Germany,  372 
*k  War  aims  and  peace  terms  of  the 
*       United   States,  464 
Congress,    Record    of,    during    first 

Wilson   administration,    304 
Congress,   Sixty-fifth    (war   session), 

commended,  429 

Congress     Hall,     Philadelphia,     Ad 
dress  at  rededication  of,  27 
Conservation  legislation,   70,   86 
Corporations 

Limitations  proposed  on  voting 
rights  of  controlling  stockhold 
ers,  54  a 

Responsibility  of  individual  offi 
cers  and  directors,  53 

Responsibility  to  the  public,  101 
Counsel    and    judgment    of.  various 

kinds,  284 
Cuba,     Honor     in     our     withdrawal 

from,  199 

Currency  legislation  urged  upon  Con 
gress,  10,  39;  benefits  of  new  law, 

306 

D 

Daughters     of     American     Revolu 
tion,  Address  to,  122 
Defense,  National 

Ajrny  expansion  for  war  recom 
mended  upon  basis  of  universal 
service,  376 


Army  insufficient  for  routine  work 
of  peace,  186,  194,  204 

Army:  Selective  Draft  Act,  395, 
510 

Army:  Selective  Draft,  men,  Mes 
sage  to,  424 

Army:  Why  limit  it  to  five  mil 
lion?  487 

Aviation  Development  in  Navy, 
185 

Coast  defenses,  Efficiency  of,  179; 
Lack  of,  169 

Industrial  mobilization  and  ex 
pert  citizen  advice,  152,  206 

Military  training  (universal,  vol 
untary)  recommended,  78,  129, 
140,  186 

Military  training,  advantages  of, 
161,  164,  178,  192,  213 

Military  training  combined  with 
vocational,  160,  164 

National  Defense  first  discussed 
in  message,  76 

National  Guard  commended  and 
changes  suggested,  130,  161, 
171,  187 

Navy  enlargement  urged,  130, 
140,  180 

Navy:  Fourth  in  quantity,  second 
to  none  in  quality,  170,  180, 
184 

Navy:  Progress  of  enlargement 
plans,  184 

Navy  that  ranks  first  in  the 
world,  205 

Navy:  Vast  coast  guarding  task, 
203 

Navy:  What  kind  of  ships  shall 
we  build?  79 

Preparedness  not  a  money-making 
agitation,  179 

Preparedness  program  outlined, 
126;  urged  upon  Congress, 
139 

Preparedness,  Recognition  of 
pressing  nature  of,  158,  167, 
208 

Sanitary  lesson  of  Spanish  War, 
204 

Universal   military   service   recom 
mended,  376 
Democratic     party,     Praise     of,     82, 

303 

Diplomatic  notes  to  belligerent  gov 
ernments,  215-270 
Directors,     Individual    responsibility 

of,  53 

Directors:    Interlocking  boards   con 
demned,  50 
Draft  legislation,  395,  510 

E 

Economic  boycott  against  Germany, 
after  the  war,  a  possibility,  448 


580 


INDEX 


Economic  combinations  among  na 
tions,  468,  524 

Economy  in  Government  expendi 
tures  urged,  4 

Education,  Vocational  and  indus 
trial,  legislation  recommended, 
342 

Eight-hour  law  urged  for  railway 
operators,  294 

Elections,  Legislation  recommended 
to  regulate  expenditure  of  money 
in,  341 

Elections  (State)  of  1914,  Inter 
pretation  of,  89 

Embargo  proclamations,  403 

Employers'  liability  law  for  railway 
employees  urged,  46 

Exports,  Regulation  of,  403 


Farm  credits  legislation  urged  upon 
Congress,  40 

Farmer,   Legislation  benefitting,   306 

Farmer,  Price-fixing  for  benefit  of, 
401,  424 

Farmers,  upon  whom  rests  the  fate 
of  nations,  390 

Federal  Reserve  Bank  system  cre 
ated,  10 

Federal  Reserve  Bank  system,  Good 
results  from,  83,  284,  306 

Federal  Trade  Commission  (See 
Trade  Commission) 

Finances  of  the  Government,  64, 
492 

Financial:  Address  at  Pan  Ameri 
can  Financial  Congress,  119 

Flag  Day  address,   411 

Food  regulation  program,  399 

"Force  to  the  Utmost,"  484 

France,  Greeting  to,  on  Bastile  Day, 
419 


Grain  Dealers'  Association,  Address 
before,  327 

Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  Ad« 
dress  before  veterans,  14 

Great  Britain,  Diplomatic  corre 
spondence  with  (See  War) 

H 

Hoover,     Herbert,    appointed    Food 

Administrator,  401 
House,  Col    E.  M.,  sent  to  Europe, 

439 


Immigration     bill     veto:     first,     94; 

second,  356 
Inaugural  address:   first,   1;   second, 

368 

Independence  Day  address,  502 
Interlocking  directorates  condemned, 

50 
International  law:  How  it  was  built 

up,   374 
Interstate     Commerce     Commission, 

enlargement     recommended,     299, 

339 

Ishii,  Viscount,  Welcome  to,  419 
[talian    frontiers  to  be  adjusted  along 

lines  of  nationality,   469 
Italian   people,   Message  to,   491 
Italians  in  the  American  Army,  488 


Jackson  Day  address  at  Indianapo 
lis,  80 

Japan's  special  Ambassador,  Wel 
come  to,  419 

K 

Kansas  as  a  typical  American  com 
munity,  193 


German  Empire:  Existence  or  inde 
pendence  not  threatened  by  United 
States,  448 

German  Government,  Indictment  of, 
407,  412,  422,  445,  499,  522  _ 

German  industrial  and  educational 
achievement,  436,  447 

German  people,  No  quarrel  with, 
362,  378,  382 

German  scheme  for  world  conquest, 
414,  437 

Germany 

Diplomatic     correspondence     with 

(See  War) 

Diplomatic    relations   severed,    358 
War  declaration  advised,   372 
War  proclaimed  with,   383 

Gettysburg  reunion,   Address   at,    14 

Gompers,   Samuel,   commended,   439 


Labor 

Address  to  American  Federation 
of  Labor,  434 

Appointment  of  commission  to  ad 
just  disputes,  427 

Conciliation  methods  versus  strikes; 
440 

Eight-hour  day  advocated  for 
railway  operators,  294 

Federal  employment  bureau  sug 
gested,  87 

Labor  pledges  in  speech  accept 
ing  renomination,  317 

Labor  record  of  first  Wilson  ad 
ministration,  307 

Labor   Day   message,    512 

Labor's  part  in  war,  513 

Letter  to  carpenter  strikers,   484 

Letter   to   machinist   strikers,   515 


531 


INDEX 


Will  you  cooperate  or  obstruct? 
486 

Lamb,  Charles,  quoted,  440 

Latin-America:  Actions  taken  by 
various  countries  against  Germany, 
432 

Latin-America,  Future  commercial 
relations  with,  32,  119,  136,  335 

League  of  Nations  an  essential  part 
of  peace  settlement,  523 

League  to  Enforce  Peace,  Address 
before,  271  (See  also  Peace 
League) 

Liberty   Loan 

Liberty  Loan  Day  designated,  430 
Statement,    519 
Speech  at  Baltimore,  480 
Speech  at  New  York,  520 

Lincoln,  Address  on,  at  log-cabin 
birthplace,  319 

Lind,  John,  sent  to  Mexico  as  per 
sonal  representative,  20 

Lobby:  Statement  denouncing  in 
sidious  influence  on  tariff  legisla 
tion,  9 

Lynchings   denounced,   506 

M 

Manhattan  Club,  New  York,  Ad 
dress  at,  125 

McAdoo,  W.  G.,  appointed  Director- 
General   of   Railroads,   457 
Merchant  marine   (See  Shipping) 
Mexico 

And     friendship     for,      but     not 

coercion,    136 

American  friendship   for,    18 
Americans  urged  to  leave,  25 
Arms-export  prohibition  (by  Taft) 

continued,   25;   removed,  55 
Arms,    Exports    of,    forbidden    ex 
cept  to   Carranza  faction,   56 
Congress    asked    for    authority    to 
use  armed  force  against  Huerta 
(Tampico  incident),  62 
Diplomatic  note  from  Mexico,  22 
How  to  help  Mexico,  282 
Huerta  the  unspeakable,  312 
Huerta's    claim    of    legal    govern 
ment,  23 
Huerta's     elimination     demanded, 

Intervention  or  war  with  Mexico, 
276 

Mexican  sovereignty  to  be  re 
spected,  20 

Mexicans  entitled  to  settle  domes 
tic  affairs  in  their  own  way,  62, 
91,  312 

Pershing  armed  expedition,  Rea 
sons  for  sending,  311 

Special  message  to  Congress,  18 

Special  message  to  Congress  on 
the  Tampico  incident,  59 


"Watchful     waiting"     policy     an 
nounced,  39 

Middlemen  should  forego  unusual 
profits  during  war,  390 

Militarism,  A  definition  of,  159 

Mine  labor  conditions,  Improvement 
of,  46 

Mob  spirit  denounced,  506 

Monopolies  (See  Trusts  and  monop 
olies) 

Monroe    Doctrine,     198;    should    be     i 
extended  to  the  whole  world,  355 

Mount  Vernon  address,  497 

N 

National  Army  selected,  395 
National  Army,   Message  to,   426 
National  defense    (See   Defense) 
National  Guard    (See   Defense,    Na 
tional) 

Navy    (See   Defense,  National) 
Neutrals,    Regulation   of   exports  to, 

403 

New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford 
Railroad  dissolution  suit  ordered, 
63 

News,  True  and  false,  112 
Newspaper    editorials'   lack   of  influ 
ence,  92,  193,  201 

Non-partisanship  of  modern  Amer 
ican  politics,  82,  90 


Pacifists,  Stupidity  of,  439 

Panama  Canal  tolls:  Message  to 
Congress  urging  repeal  of  free- 
tolls  provision  for  American  ships, 

Pan-American     Financial     Congress, 

Address  at,  119 
Party,  Government  by,  84,  90 
Parties.    Political    (See    Democratic. 

Republicans,  Politics,  etc.) 
Peace 

An     age     of    peace     (ante-bellum 

statement),  37 

Essential     terms     of     world     har 
mony,    348,   370,    524 
League  of  nations  to  avert  future 

wars,   315,   350,  355,  470,   524 
League   to    enforce    peace,    United 
States  willing  to  become  a  mem 
ber  of,  274,   525 
Peace,   the  desire   of  democracies, 

137 

Peace  without  victory,  352 
Right  is  more  precious  than  peace, 

See  also  Peace  entries  under  War 
Peace,    League    to    Enforce,    Ad 
dress   before,   271 


532 


INDEX 


Philippines: 

America  as  trustee  for,  199 
Greater    measure    of    self-govern 
ment   for,    71,    145 
Natives   granted  control   of   upper 
chamber,  44 

Pope  Benedict's  peace  proposals,  Re 
ply  to,  421 

Poland  must  be  united,  independent, 
autonomous,  353,  470 

Poland  must  have  access  to  sea,  450, 
470 

Political  asylum  for  foreign  refugees 
should  not  be  restricted,  95 

Politics: 

A  definition  of,  28 

Independent     voters'     supremacy, 

90 

Non-partisanship  of  modern  Amer 
icans,  82 
"Politics  is  adjourned,"  495 

Porto  Rico,   Changes  in  government 
urged,  43,    145,  341 

"Preparedness"    (See    Defense,    Na 
tional) 

Presidential      primary      law      urged 
upon   Congress,   43 

Press  Club,  New  York,  Address  be 
fore,  276 

Price-fixing   as    part    of    food-regula 
tion  program,  401,  424 

Price-fixing     further     recommended, 
452 

Profiteering,   489,  496 

Progressive   Party  principles  carried 
out  bv  Democrats,   308 

Prohibition    legislation,    517 

"Proud,  Too,  to  fight,"  117 

R 

Railroads 

Capital  supervision,  51 

New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hart 
ford  Railroad  sued  for  dissolu 
tion  of  mergers,  63 

Placed  under  Government  control 
and  operation,  455 

Presidential  control  proposed,  over 
property  and  men,  in  case  of 
military  necessity,  301,  339 

Problem  serious  and  pressing,  154 

Special  message  to  Congress  to 
avert  threatened  strike,  294; 
reference  to  railroad  legislation 
in  annual  message,  337 

Systems  must  be  developed  and 
coordinated  for  national  use, 
317 

Withdrawal  of  recommendation 
that  Congress  approves  increase 
of  freight  rates  to  meet  expense 
of  eight-hour  day,  339 
Railroad  Business  Association,  Ad 
dress  before,  156 


Red  Cross 

Address  at  dedication  of  Washing 
ton  home,  392 
Cooperation     by     school     children 

proposed,    427 
Fund    Speech,    486 

Reelection,  Thinking  about,  renders 
reelection  difficult,  30 

Renomination,   Speech  accepting,  302 

Republican  party,  Criticism  of,  81, 
304,  309 

Resources,  Natural,  Development  of, 
45,  317,  452 

Revenue:  Further  taxation  urged, 
to  cover  "preparedness"  expendi 
tures,  146 

Revenue:  Special  message  urging 
additional  revenue  to  meet  de 
crease  in  customs,  64 

Rural  credits  (See  Farm  credits) 

Russia,  always  democratic  at  heart, 
379 

Russia,  Message  to,  405 

Russia  plundered  by  German  diplo 
macy,  482 

Russia,  to  stand  by  her  as  well  as 
France,  487 

Russian  democracy  endangered  by 
Germany,  439,  450,  464 

Russian  National  Council,  Message 
to,  420 


Safety  at  sea:    Ratification  of  inter 
national  convention  urged,  73 
Salesmanship     Congress,     Addresses 

at,   279 

Seas,  Freedom  of  (See  under  War) 
Second  Term    (See   Reelection) 
Secret    diplomacy    condemned,    468, 

Selective  principle  in  draft  laws, 
398,  509,  511 

Senate,  Address  to,  on  essential 
terms  of  peace,  348 

Serbia  must  have  access  to  sea,  450, 
470 

Sherman  Anti-trust  law  retarding 
foreign  commerce,  106 

Sherman  Anti-trust  law  should  be 
supplemented,  42,  47,  52 

Shipping,   Lack  of.   70 

Shipping  legislation  urged  upon  Con 
gress,  72 

Shipping  bill  as  remedy  for  extor 
tionate  ocean  freight  rates,  85 

Shipping  bill  as  remedy  for  dwin 
dling  merchant  marine,  143,  334 

South  America   (See  Latin-America) 

Southern  Commercial  Congress,  Ad 
dress  before,  32 

Spanish  War  sanitary  experience, 
204 

Strikes   (see   Labor) 


633 


INDEX 


Tariff,  protective  (Republican),  Evils 
of,  7,  304 

Tariff  revision  urged  upon  Congress, 
5;  its  tendency  to  encourage  for 
eign  trade,  305 

Tariff  Commission 

Conversion  in  favor  of,  158 
Bipartisan  membership,  288 
What    it    is    expected    to    accom 
plish,  316,  332 

Tax  inequities  which  ought  to  be 
remedied,  494 

Taxation,  to  help  sustain  war  costs, 
377 

Telegraph  and  telephone,  Govern 
mental  control  of,  503 

Thanksgiving  proclamation,  433 

Too  proud  to  fight,  117 

Trade  (See  Commerce) 

Trade  Commission 

How  it  has  relieved  business,  306, 

331 

Power    to    investigate    tariff    ques 
tions,  89 

Recommended  to  Congress,  52 
Why  it  was  established,  28,  315 

Trusts  and  monopolies,  Message  to 
Congress  on,  47 

Turkey  controlled  by  Germany,  437, 
447 

Turkey:  Solution  of  political  and 
race  problems,  470 

u 

United  States  (See  America  and 
Americans;  also  under  War) 

United  States  Chamber  of  Com 
merce,  Address  before,  103 

Universal  military  training  and 
service  (See  Defense,  National) 


Veto  of   Immigration  bill;   first,   94, 
second,  356 

w 

War 

Alliances  must  give  way  to  com 
mon  agreement,  273 

America  alone  at  peace  and  keep 
ing  its  head,  93,  133,  181,  183 

America  as  a  belligerent,  376 

America  may  become  involved, 
172,  210 

America  more  indispensable  at 
peace  than  to  either  side  if  at 
war,  198 

America  seeks  no  indemnities,  no 
material  compensation,  381,  406 

America  should  participate  with 
out  interfering  with  supplies 
for  nations  already  in  field,  377 


America's  determination  to  use 
every  resource  and  win,  446 

America's  interest  in  European 
peace,  349 

America's  objects  in  entering  war, 
406,  464 

America's  part  to  supply  food, 
ships,  raw  and  manufactured 
materials,  388 

America's  desire  that  President 
should  "keep  us  out  of  war," 
173,  189,  201 

Ancona  case,  254 

Arabic  case,  253 

Armaments,  Limitations  of,  354, 
371 

Armed  neutrality  suggested,  365; 
declared  impracticable,  375 

Austria,  Note  to,  regarding  An 
cona  sinking,  254 

Austria-Hungary:  War  declaration 
advised,  451 

Between  governments,  never  be 
tween  peoples,  177 

Brazil  joins  Allies,  432 

British  blockade,  Notes  relating 
to,  225,  227,  229 

British  blockade  declared  illegal, 
234;  ineffective,  illegal  and  in 
defensible,  237 

Cost   of,    to  America,    492 

Gushing  case,  239,  244 

Declaration  of  London,  Suggest 
ed  observance  of,  215 

Diplomatic  correspondence  with 
belligerents,  215-270 

Falaba  case,  239,  245 

Finances  of  United  States,  430 

Flag:  Unwarranted  use  of  Amer 
ican  emblem  by  British  ships, 
223 

German  submarine  pledges,  253, 
268 

German  words  and  German  deeds, 
473,  482 

Germans  in  the  United  States, 
alien  enemy  regulations,  383,  451 

Germany,  Diplomatic  relations  sev 
ered,  358 

Germany,  Proclamation  of  state 
of  war  with,  383 

Germany,  Refusal  to  discuss 
British-American  relations  with, 
270 

Germany,  Threat  to  sever  diplo 
matic  relations  with,  262 

Germany,  War  declaration  ad 
vised,  372 

Gul flight  case,   239,  244 

Issues,    521 

Loans  of  United  States,  430 

Lusitania  notes  to  Germany,  239, 
244,  249 

Merchant   ships,   Arming   of,   265, 


534 


INDEX 


War — Continued 

Merchant    ships,    Congress    asked 

for  authority  to  arm,  363 
Money  necessary  for  ships,  muni 
tions,   and   men,   495 
Nation,  not  an  army,    trained   for 

war,  397 
Neutral    nation,    Difficulties    of    a, 

196,  310,  315 
Neutrality    appeal    to    Americans, 

217 
Neutrality    no   longer    feasible    or 

desirable,  378 
Objects    for    which    it    is    waged, 

Plea    for    precise    statement   of, 

347 
Objects  for  which  it  is  waged,  A 

statement  of,  422 
Objects    of    America    in    entering 

war,   406,  464 
Objects    of    associated    peoples    of 

the  world,   500,   521 
Peace   address    (while   a    neutral) 

to    Senate,    on    essential    terms, 

348 
Peace:  Advantage  to  Germany  of 

premature  peace,  416 
Peace    agreement    must    be    guar 
anteed    by   German    people,   424, 

446,   522 
Peace    based    on    generosity    and 

justice,   446,   481,    524 
Peace     conference     fundamentals, 

477,    524 
Peace  formula:   "No  annexations, 

no  indemnities,"   445 
Peace  must  be   guaranteed  by   an 

international  force,  351 
Peace   proposal    (while  a   neutral) 

to  belligerent  governments,   343 
Peace  settlement  of  all  issues  must 

be  joined   in  by  all   parties,  475 
Peace  terms,  348,  407,  464 
"Peace  without  victory,"    352 
Profit  from  war  industries  should 

be  small,  391 
Property  rights  can  be  vindicated 

by  damage  rlaim=    rights  of  hu 
manity  cannot,  310 


Right  of  Americans  to  travel  on 
the  seas,  196  (See  also  German 
and  submarine  note  references) 

Right  of  Americans  to  trade  with 
the  world,  197  (See  also  Brit 
ish  blockade  references) 

Seas,  Freedom  of,  353,  371,  450, 
468 

Submarine,  American  notes  pro 
testing  against,  220,  239,  244, 
249,  257,  269 

Submarine  and  blockade  compro 
mise  proposal  of  United  States, 
226 

Submarines  "manifestly  cannot 
be  used  against  merchantmen," 
241 ;  "possible  and  practicable 
to  conduct  such  submarine  op 
erations,"  251;  "use  of  sub 
marines  for  destruction  of  com 
merce  utterly  incompatible  with 
principles  of  humanity,"  262 

Submarine  war-zone  protest  to 
Germany,  220 

Submarine  war  against  merch'ant 
ships  renewed  by  Germany,  358 

Sussex  case  (note  to  Germany), 
257;  (address  to  Congress),  262 

Territorial  conquests  and  punitive 
damages  condemned,  407,  424 

United  States  (See  War:  Ameri 
ca) 

Visit-and-search  principles,  221 

Western  Hemisphere  must  be  kept 

out,   168 

Washington,    George,    Brief    charac 
terization   of,   29,   498 
"Watchful   waiting"   Mexican  policy 

announced,  39 

Water-power  development  urged,   70 
Wheat  price  determined,  424 
Workmen's   compensation    (See   Em 
ployers'   liability) 
"World     must    be     made    safe     for 

democracy,"  381 
Wilson,       Woodrow,        Biographical 

sketch  of,  xi 
Woman-suffrage  convention,  Address 

at,  323 


6S5 


NOTABLE   PHRASES  OF   PRESIDENT  WILSON 

If  you  think  too  much  about  being  reflected,  it  is  very  difficult 
to  be  worth  reflecting.  Page  30. 

We  shall  not,  I  believe,  be  obliged  to  alter  our  policy  of  watchful 
waiting.  (Mexico.)  Page  39. 

I  shall  not  know  how  to  deal  with  other  matters  of  even  greater 
delicacy  and  nearer  consequence  if  you  do  not  grant  it  to  me  in 
ungrudging  measure.  (Repeal  of  provision  for  free  tolls  for 
American  coastwise  ships  through  Panama  Canal.)  Page  59. 

We  must  depend  .  .  .  not  upon  a  standing  army,  nor  yet  upon 
a  reserve  army,  but  upon  a  citizenry  trained  and  accustomed  to 
arms.  Page  78. 

/There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  being  too  proud  to  fight.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to 
convince  others  by  force  that  it  is  right.  Page  117. 

No  man  in  the  United  States  knows  what  a  single  week  or  a 
single  day  or  a  single  hour  may  bring  forth.  (A  plea  for  military 
preparedness,  January,  1916.)  Page  172. 

There  may  at  any  moment  come  a  time  when  I  cannot  preserve 
both  the  honor  and  the  peace  of  the  United  States.  Page  177. 

The  United  States  would  be  constrained  to  hold  the  imperial 
German  Government  to  a  strict  accountability.  Page  222. 

The  Imperial  German  Government  will  not  expect  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  omit  any  word  or  any  act  necessary 
to  the  performance  of  its  sacred  duty  of  maintaining  the  rights 
of  the  United  States  and  its  citizens.  Page  248. 

Unless  the  Imperial  Government  should  now  immediately  de 
clare  and  effect  an  abandonment  of  its  present  methods  of  sub 
marine  warfare  against  passenger  and  freight-carrying  vessels, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  can  have  no  choice  but  to 
sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the  German  Empire  altogether. 
Page  262. 

The  United  States  is  willing  to  become  a  partner  in  any  feas 
ible  association  of  nations  formed  in  order  to  realize  these  objects. 
(The  guarantee  of  territorial  integrity  and  political  independence, 
and  the  prevention  of  hasty  wars.)  Page  274- 


Notable  Phrases  of  President  Wilson 

Property  rights  can  be  vindicated  by  claims  for  damages  .  . 
but  the  fundamental  rights  of  humanity  cannot  be.  Page  310. 

So  long  as  the  power  of  recognition  rests  with  me,  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  will  refuse  to  extend  the  hand  of  wel 
come  to  anyone  who  obtains  power  in  a  sister  republic  by  treachery 
and  violence.    Page  318. 
tx  It  must  be  a  peace  without  victory.    Page  352. 

I  advise  that  the  Congress  declare  the  recent  course  of  the  Impe 
rial  German  Government  to  be  in  fact  nothing  less  than  war 
against  the  government  and  people  of  the  Unite'd  States.  Page  376. 

We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people.    Page  378. 
«The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy.    Page  381. 
jThe  right  is  more  precious  than  peace.    Page  382. 
clt  is  not  an  army  that  we  must  shape  and  train  for  war;  it  is 
a  nation.     Page  393. 

America  in  this  war  .  .  .  seeks  no  material  profit  or  aggran 
dizement  of  any  kind.  She  is  fighting  .  .  .  for  the  liberation 
of  peoples  everywhere  from  the  aggressions  of  autocratic  force. 
Page  396. 

The  day  has  come  to  conquer  or  submit.    Page  408. 

For  us  there  is  but  one  choice.    We  have  made  it.    Page  418. 

Balked,  but  not  defeated,  the  enemy  of  four-fifths  of  the  world. 
(The  German  Government.)  Page  422. 

Will  you  cooperate  or  obstruct?  (To  striking  carpenters  in  ship 
yards.)  Page  486. 

^Friendship  is  the  only   cement   that  will   ever  hold   the   world 
together.    Page  488. 

Politics  is  adjourned.  The  elections  will  go  to  those  who  think 
least  of  it.  Page  495. 

There  can  be  but  one  issue.  The  settlement  must  be  final.  There 
can  be  no  compromise.  No  half-way  decision  is  conceivable.  Page 
500. 

Peoples  and  provinces  are  not  to  be  bartered  about  from  sov 
ereignty  to  sovereignty  as  if  they  were  mere  chattels  and  pawns 
in  a  game,  even  the  great  game,  now  forever  discredited,  of  the 
balance  of  power.  Page  478. 

687 


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